The Beginning of the Hunger Games
by emmdog1994
Summary: Follow Apollo, a trained fighter for the newly defeated resistance, and now a tribute in the first Hunger Games. Watch as the first career pack is formed, and as they do what careers do - kill others, and then, eventually, each other. NOW FINISHED!
1. The Reaping

The Beginning of the Hunger Games

As my eyes fluttered open, the room around me swam into focus. The Window was open to my left, bathing the room in golden light and filling it with the sweet sound of birds singing in the forest outside our house. Listening closer, I heard the low hum of the electrified fence that separated our district from the forest. From the outside. From freedom.

I tried in vain for the next twenty minutes to return to the unconscious state I had been in before finally giving up. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, stood up, and stretched with my arms above my head and my back arched.

I was halfway finished dressing in a comfortable outfit of sweats, a hoodie, and slippers when I remembered what today was – the Reaping.

A couple of days ago, the Capitol had announced that it would be starting a new competition between the twelve districts of Panem called the Hunger Games. Each districrt would send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to the Capitol. There, they would be trained and otherwise prepared, then be placed in a massive outdoor arena to fight to the death. The last tribute standing would be the winner.

Each district was to hold a ceremony to select its tributes. The names of all children would be entered and drawn out randomly. Twelve year olds were entered once, thirteen year olds twice, and so on. There was also a system called the tessera system where poor people could receive food in exchange for extra entries into the drawing, but here in District 1, the richest district in Panem, hardly anyone took any tessera.

I undressed, then put on my nicest pants - black with silver pinstripes – and then adorned a silk shirt that faded from silver on the right side to black on the left. I finished it off with my most expensive black shoes which I had polished last night and now were so shiny that I could make out my distorted reflection in them.

I walked into the bathroom, closed the door, and peed. I then walked over to the sink to wash my hands. I was drying my hands on the towel by the faucet when I looked up and saw my reflection. Did I look like a killer? I had been trained to kill, but I had never taken a life. I had turned sixteen two days after the rebellion had ended.

I had been trained as a spy for the Rebellion. My partner and I were to be placed in the capitol and assigned the impossible task of killing the Generals of the opposing forces. Sheek and I had been trained rigorously for the past two years. But since the Rebellion had ended, we had never been given the opportunity to use our skills. But this, this competition that was being called the Hunger Games, this was our opportunity.

It had taken Sheek and I all of five minutes to decide that we would be the ones to represent our District in the first ever Hunger Games. Not only was the winner spoiled with fame and fortune, but the entire district was showered with gifts from the capitol, mostly food. For the next year, your district would be well fed while the other districts barely scratched by. We figured that we stood a better chance than anyone else from our district because of our training.

We knew that both of us living was not an option – there was a very good chance that one of us would have to kill the other. But we knew that if the other won then our families would be taken care of and our friends wouldn't starve.

I walked downstairs to find my mother sitting on the couch with my twin siblings. The boy, Obsidian, was very shy, an introvert if I ever saw one; however, his twin sister Opal was wild. She wore her heart on her sleeve and was brutally honest in all endeavors. Both had my mother's sleek black hair, as did I. Today, I was wearing my hair forward and then scooped into a peak in the center of my forehead. Opal wasted no time in telling me that I looked like a Unicorn.

"Thank you, Opal," I said quietly. Obsidian laughed nervously, obviously unsure if he was allowed to be entertained by this. I gave him a stern look, and he immediately stopped laughing. Opal and I began to laugh so hard that by the time my mother had cooked breakfast, we were still rolling around on the ground laughing.

Little was said over breakfast. It had dawned on the family that this very well may be the last time they ever saw me. I tried to draw them into conversation, but they couldn't stop thinking about the ceremony to come. I gave up on conversation and finished my breakfast in silence.

By the time it was eight o'clock, we were all ready to go. As we were District 1, we had the first of twelve Reapings scattered throughout the day. All children were to be in the center of town by eight twenty, sharp. Anyone who was not present and was not near death would be imprisoned.

We arrived with no time to spare. I quickly ran to the section where all sixteen year olds in our district had been instructed to sit. My siblings quickly ran over to the section marked off for twelve year olds. I wasn't worried about them. In fact, I wanted their names to be drawn. If one of them was selected and somebody volunteered in their place, they would not be put back into the drawing the following year.

I looked around at the sixteen year olds behind me. I saw Sheek sitting in the very back corner of the very last row. She was alone so I got up and went to sit by her.

I sat down just as the mayor, Emerald Saxton, began speaking. Behind him sat two people, both obviously from the Capitol – they looked so eccentric that they couldn't possibly be from anywhere else.

The mayor was talking about the Hunger Games as if they were some sort of festivity. I decided not to listen.

"Rough morning?" I asked Sheek. She nodded. "Do you want to tell me?" I asked.

"My sister. I am going to miss her so much." This thought was obviously too much for her, and she began to sob again.

"Sheek, stop it," I commanded. "The more you think about it, the harder it will be. Just calm down, and go with the plan. It will be fine." With a final choked sob, she sat up straight and met my eyes.

We looked up and heard the mayor reading the Treaty of Treason. This is what had ended the Rebellion. This is what started the Hunger Games.

Despite the façade of playful competition the Capitol was casting over these games, the real motive behind them was clear. We were being punished. Punished for rising against them, and now they were taking children and having them massacre each other on live television.

The mayor was now introducing our escort from the Capitol, Ellika Maven, who got up and began to speak in the frilly and unbearably annoying Capitol accent. I couldn't help dreading the train ride to the Capitol with her. Her hair was parted down the middle, and then in fell to her ankles in tight ringlets. The left half of her head was bright orange while the other half was a yellow that would make the sun dizzy. Her appearance and her voice had already convinced me that I didn't like her. If that wasn't enough, her two favorite catch phrases were "Happy Hunger Games" and "May the Odds by _ever _in your favor" which didn't gain her much favor with the audience.

"Now its time to select the Girl Tribute for District 1," she said, indicating the two glass bowls filled with tiny slips of paper. There was a name on each one of them, and whoever was chosen would go up on the stage, shake hands with the mayor and Ellika, and then they would ask for volunteers. That is when Sheek would stand and say what she had to say.

"Drum roll please," said Ellika, obviously hoping for a reaction from the audience. What she got was a glare from each and every member of the crowd. Unfazed and with the biggest smile she could muster, she reached into the bowl and pulled out a single slip of paper. "Silk Bintty!" she exclaimed.

A dainty twelve year old girl who had been sitting next to my sister stood up and walked solemnly to the stage. The fear was evident in every part of her body – the pursed lips, the wide eyes, and the whole of her body that was shaking. I almost felt pity for the girl, but I knew that she had nothing to worry about.

She reached the stage and slowly walked up the stairs. When she reached the top, she shook hands with the mayor and Ellika, before tuning to face the crowd. They were silent. For a couple of seconds, there wasn't a sound in the whole of District 1.

The silent trance was broken when the woman spoke into the microphone once more. "Are there any volunteers?" No sooner were the words out of her mouth when Sheek stood up and spoke in her loudest voice.

"I volunteer as the girl Tribute from District 1," she said. The woman smiled broadly and motioned for Sheek to join her on the stage. Sheek gave me a reassuring smile, then began a steady pace up to the stage. When she reached it, she too shook hands with the mayor and the escort.

"Lovely!" said Ellika. "Now we will select the boy tribute," I was relieved to see that she didn't ask for a drum roll this time. She reached her hand into the glass bowl containing the boys names, and pulled out a single slip. "Emery Lamag."

A boy stood up in the section of eighteen year olds, but he didn't look eighteen. He looked, at best, fifteen. He was short and scrawny, and he couldn't have weighed more that one hundred pounds.

He began to walk, no, limp to the stage. When he got into the open aisle, it was apparent that his left leg wasn't right. When he turned to the side, I saw that his knee was turned backwards so that when he walked, it bent farther back like a bird's leg. It was sickening, and I couldn't help but be happy that I was volunteering for this boy.

When he came to the stairs, he looked down at them, and then he looked back up at the people on the stage. He couldn't climb stairs.

Ellika had just looked around for someone to help him up. She voiced her request over the microphone but nobody came forward. I figured it was a perfect time for me to speak.

"No matter," I shouted. "I volunteer as the boy tribute for District 1."

Every head turned toward me. I caught the boy's eye, and many emotions crossed his face: shock, embarrassment, awe, thankfulness. I was happy to have spared this boys life, but the thought then crossed me that in doing so, I may have forfeited mine.

I walked to the stage, shook the necessary hands, then faced the crowd. Sheek stood up next to me, and we stood together looking back at everyone we loved.

Ellika boomed over the microphone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the tributes of District 1!"


	2. Visitors

Chapter 2

The Reality of the situation I was in began to sink in when the peacekeepers grabbed my arms and led me gently from the stage. The crowd began to murmur, and it eventually grew until the sound was deafening.

The peacekeepers lead Sheek and me into the justice building. We rode in the elevator together to the third floor. When the doors opened, they pushed her to the right and me to the left. The led me into a dimly lit room with a plush couch and three straight backed arm chairs. I laid back on the couch and took it all in.

'I am going to compete in the Hunger Games.' I thought to myself. 'Sheek and I are going to murder other kids. No! Not murder. Defeat. And don't think of them as kids. They are opponents. If you think of them as kids, then you think of yourself as superior, and you can _not _underestimate anyone. Who knows? There could be others in there with your training. They could kill you.'

These thoughts were scaring me. I was so jittery that when my mother, brother, and sister walked in, I had grabbed the lamp on the table next to me and was moments away from hurling it at them when it occurred to me who they were.

Fear crossed my brother's face to see me this out of it. He immediately began to cry. Opal, on the other hand, laughed.

"You're not even in the Capitol yet and you're already crazy. You've got a big head start on the other competitors then," she giggled. Nobody else in the room found this funny. Upon seeing that we weren't laughing she smirked but quieted.

My mother ran at me and sank her head into my chest. Startled, I patted her back and whispered to her not to cry. "W-w-what are we g-going to do wi-without y-you?" She continued to sob so I continued to hug her and pat her back.

"You'll be fine until I come back," I whispered. Her breath caught at this statement, and she looked up at me. "Yes Mom," I assured her. "I'm coming back from this. I will win." This seemed to shake her more than anything yet, and she dissolved into harder sobs.

After another minute of this, she backed away and Obsidian stepped forward. He seemed unsure of himself, but he timidly stepped forward and gave me a hug. In a hushed tone, he whispered to me that he would be rooting for me and that I needed to come home.

"You need to be strong for Mom and Opal. You're the man of the house now, and whatever you see, you have to be there for them. I love you. See you soon."

Opal stepped forward then. I watched her. She seemed to be holding something back. I thought it might be a tear, but finally it burst forth in the form of a laugh. At my confused look, she spoke through her laughter.

"You were sitting in something at the Reaping," she giggled, "and its all over you butt!" This was too much, and I burst forward and hugged her. I picked her up and swung her around in a circle. When I put her down, she laughed again and said, "If you die, can I have your room?" This swept away any happiness that she had put back into me.

The peacekeepers came in and escorted them out. I waved a final good bye, and then sat down on the couch. I stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes before the door opened, announcing the arrival of my next visitor. I looked up and saw an old man that I had never seen in my life.

He had a long shaggy beard, thick glasses, and wore a black top hat. I was very confused. Who was this man? Why was he visiting me? What did he want to say to me? What should I say to him?

The peacekeeper closed the door, and the man immediately sat down and began messing with his beard. This was so peculiar that I took a step backward. Noticing this, he spoke to me.

"What? You don't recognize me?" I shook my head and made a perplexed face. "Its me – Bristol." My eyes widened and I immediately rushed over to him on the couch.

Bristol had been the man who trained Sheek and me for the Rebellion. He had trained most of the kids at our school in basic fighting techniques, but he had selected us from the bunch to be trained for a different purpose – to become killing machines. Our training had nearly been complete when District 1 had been defeated. Bristol had been forced into hiding to avoid execution. I hadn't heard from him in almost two months.

"It's great to see you, Bristol," I told him.

"Be quiet! I have a lot to say and very little time to do it." He said this very quickly and sternly. I immediately sat up. This had to be important.

"I have been meeting with Sadima West and Viktor Tyson in secret. They were also training students in districts two and four. Their students are planning on volunteering to enter the games as well."

"Ok," I murmured confused. "So I have some powerful enemies?"

"Yes, but not immediately. You must team up with them. You and Sheek both. Work together, weed out the weaker contestants."

"Will they have been told to do the same?" I asked, nervous about going into this with five other people on my team, not just one.

"Yes. All they know, however, is to work with you. They will not know what I'm about to tell you. They will not be coached on the most important part of the plan."

"Which is?" I asked him.

"You six can not, under any circumstance, be the last six standing. If that happens, your chances of winning will be severely diminished. You have to narrow the field before that time comes. Keep them all until there are only a handful of tributes remaining. Get Sheek to help you if you must, but don't be afraid to kill her if it comes to that."

The thought of killing Sheek had occurred to me, but I had put it aside. Now, however, it hit me that if I ever wanted to see my brother and sister again, she had to die. Her survival meant the death of me. The shock must have shown on my face because Bristol's tone became gentler.

"Apollo, I have taught you everything I know. You are strong, you are smart. You can win. Just remember one thing. Your brain makes decisions, not your biceps."

We heard foot steps outside the door. With a scared expression, Bristol began putting his beard back on.

The door creaked open just as he was putting the top hat on. The peacekeepers turned to escort him, but he quickly pointed to his head and tapped it twice. I knew what he meant. He was telling me to be smart.

I hoped I'd get another visitor before I left, but I didn't. I spent the next half of an hour drowning in my own thoughts.

'How will I kill somebody in our group and still have a group? Could I convince them to team up on one of them? No, that would turn them against me. What if we split up, three and three, and Sheek and I killed our companion and said that we were ambushed? That might work. What if Sheek tries to kill me? Will I be able to fend her off? I think so, but I can never be sure. All we ever did was spar, and we never attempted death blows at each other?'

'What kind of weapons will be provided? Will there be anything I've been trained with? I think so because my fighting is very versatile. I can fight very well with a sword, club, or mace. I can throw a spear with accuracy up to fifty yards. I can't shoot a bow, but Sheek can if her target isn't very far away. Then again, that doesn't really help me in the long run if she can do something I can't. I'd better learn that before we go into the arena.'

I began to think to myself that leaving the contestants alone wasn't such a good idea. I was about to pee my pants thinking about what I was getting myself into, and I already knew that I had five teammates. What must it be like for the kids going into this alone? What must it be like for the kids who didn't choose to enter?

I'd just decided that it would suck to be thrown into this without a choice when the peacekeepers came for me. They hoisted me off the couch and half pushed, half walked me to the elevator. Once inside, they let me go until we reached the bottom floor.

When the doors opened, they pulled me out of the building and into the back seat of a car. The car was fancy, and I had just finished admiring the soft leather seats, the roomy interior, and the shiny handles on the doors when Sheek was pushed in next to me.

I had expected my mood to brighten when she entered, but something was different. When I looked at her, I didn't see what I had seen before. I now saw her through different eyes, the eyes of a competitor. She was no longer a friend or partner. She was merely a companion. An opponent. An obstacle. An enemy.

She met my gaze and I faltered. Upon her face was the smile she always wore. A wide grin spreading from ear to ear, her pearly white teeth gleaming for the world to see. But her eyes told the real story: Through them, she saw not a pal, she saw me as I now saw her. A companion. An opponent. An obstacle. An enemy.

The car drove us to the train station. We hopped out of the car and found ourselves in the middle of a horde of cameras. Every lens was focused on us, and I remembered what my sister had said about my butt and how I had forgotten to wipe away at whatever adorned the seat of my pants. Crap. I'm the laughing stock of Panem right now.

When we boarded the train, we found that it was fancier than any building in District 1. There was a dining room table that was decorated with gleaming crystal and polished plates. Sheek picked up one of the forks, examining it, and I saw that it was pure silver. That one utensil could feed my family for a whole day.

Two blonde boys who looked about eighteen years old showed Sheek and I to our rooms. They were just down the hall from each other. Before I entered my room, the boy handed me a handwritten note in the fanciest script I had ever seen. It said that dinner would be served in one hour and to wear whatever I wanted. I said thank you to the boy, and he left.

When I entered the room I found it was fancier still. The Bed wouldn't have fit inside my room. The blanket that lay on top of it was of white silk, embroidered with green and gold thread. My mother could sew, but nothing like this. This would have taken her over a year.

The blanket was embroidered with a mural that showed the main industry of each of the districts. District 1's part of the blanket was a waterfall that gently transformed from water to thousands of tiny gem stones. District 2 (energy) showed streaming bolts of lightning circle each other in a swirling patter. District 4 had three fish jumping out of the water into a pair of cupped hands.

Looking around in somber awe, I bent my knees and jumped as high as I could onto the bed. And as the gravity of earth pulled me down to the bed, the gravity of my predicament pulled me down farther into myself. I was here in this fancy train. I was surrounded by people who were to serve and help me. And I had never felt more alone.


	3. All Aboard

Chapter 3

After a couple of minutes of staring at the ceiling, I got up and began to examine the rest of the room. There was a polished wood dresser in the far corner. I walked over to it and pulled a drawer at random. Folded neatly inside were shirts of countless colors, shapes, and fabrics. Another held pants of varying colors and lengths. The top drawer was full of colorful socks, and the final unopened drawer help underpants. I selected a light pair of khaki shorts and a green long sleeve shirt. I noticed that all the clothes seemed to fit me perfectly and I wondered if I was going to be catered to like this until I was in the Arena.

New clothes and all, I walked over to the small bathroom that was connected to my compartment. It was painted a calming blue color and smelled of lavender – my favorite flower.

Wanting only to use the toilet, I had no idea how much trouble I was getting into. The top of the toilet was riddled with buttons. I pushed one at random, and the seat lifted up. Curious, I pushed another, and the bowl of the toilet began to rise until it was even with my chest. I hit another, hoping to put the height right, but a compartment beneath the bowl suddenly opened, revealing a roll of toilet paper. One more button caused the roll to begin spinning and spewing itself over the rest of the bathroom.

Five minutes later, I found myself knocking on Sheek's door, covered in toilet paper and soaking wet. She laughed harder than I had heard her laugh since we had begun our training, and it cheered me up. On my way out of the bathroom, I caught sight of myself in the mirror above her bed, and I looked so funny that I began to laugh myself.

I returned to my compartment and, with the help of one of the servants aboard the train, began to clean up the mess the toilet had made. I spent the rest of my time before dinner avoiding anything I hadn't encountered before.

When the clock in the corner announced that the allotted hour was up, I walked down the hall to the dining room we had seen earlier. Sitting at the table were three people: Sheek, Ellika Maven, and the other man from the Capitol that was sitting on the stage. He looked stern and hostile.

I took the seat next to Sheek rather than sit by the scary guy. Competitors or not, she looked infinitely more inviting.

The food was brought out in courses. I stuffed my face on each of them, but it just kept coming. I had never had food of this quality or this quantity. Ellika kept reminding Sheek and me to save room for there was more to come, but I couldn't have stopped eating that food if I tried. Portion control wasn't important. The very least I could do before the arena was put on some weight. I'd have trouble finding food if it wasn't given to me, so I figured that if I had more body fat, I could last longer without food.

When I had eaten myself past sick and the dishes were taken away, Ellika spoke to us. "This, children, is Jasper Jenkis. He will be your mentor through the games." Upon seeing our blank looks, she goes on to say, "He is going to guide you through the events prior to the games, including the training and the interviews, and once the games start, he will be your only connection to the outside world. But we'll get to that later." She smiled and looked at him, telling him that it was his turn to speak.

He sat forward in his chair and looked at us. It was hard not to be intimidated by him. I did my best.

"What can you do?" he said, addressing Sheek.

"I can fight. I can wield a bow well, I can handle a sword, throw a spear, but my weapon of choice is an ax. I can also throw knives from close range."

He looked at her, obviously impressed. He looked from her to me and gave me a nod that clearly meant for me to answer the same question.

"My weapon of choice is a sword, but a club or mace works just as well. I can throw a spear. I fight hand to hand well, and I can wrestle. I can throw knives but not nearly as well as her." I motioned to Sheek with a cock of my head.

He looked at us both again, and was taken aback at how well we were prepared for the ordeal. Then, becoming aware of the surprise on his face, he replaced the impassive mask upon his face.

"Now, children," he said, addressing us as if we were some little kids on the first day of kindergarten, "when we arrive in the Capitol tonight, you will be handed over to your stylists. When they come in, they will scrutinize you and critique every inch of you. Don't be bothered by them and don't lift a finger or word against them. Not only will this get you nowhere, but it will make the time you spend with them even more painful than they will be without it. Got it?"

"Got it," we said in unison. Ellika and Jasper both got up and walked out of the dining room. We took this to mean that dinner was over.

Sheek and I walked back to our rooms together. When we reached my room, I was about to turn the handle when a thought occurred to me. "Sheek?" I whispered. She stopped and turned her head to look at me. "Did he come to see you too?" I was talking about Bristol, but as he made the top ten most wanted people on the Capitol's list right now, I didn't want to say his name aloud.

She gave the tiniest of nods before turning the handle of her own door. This meant that she was aware of our game plan. She was also aware that we mustn't divulge the identity of the man who came to visit us.

I entered my room and flopped down on the bed. My head was spinning and I just needed a break from reality. I needed to escape my thoughts which were scaring me more than anything right now. I laid my head down on the pillow and began to sleep.

When I woke up, I stood up and walked out into the hall. I heard sound coming from the room at the end of the hall, and I recognized it as the anthem of Panem. I followed my ears down the hall curiously.

When I entered the room, I saw Jasper and Sheek sitting in comfy armchairs staring at a television taller than I was. I sat on the floor near Sheek's feet and began to watch with them.

Suddenly, my breath caught as I saw the one place I wanted to be – District 1. I saw the town square, filled past its capacity with children, their anxious parents, and nonchalant bystanders betting on who would be picked.

"What is this?" I asked Jasper. When he didn't immediately answer, I looked back at him. He still didn't speak, but nodded towards the screen. I looked back, and saw myself.

Sheek and I were sitting in the very back row. We looked intense. Our conversation didn't skip a beat when the mayor began speaking. I knew that someone watching this program wouldn't be able to know what we were saying, which was good, because I was unsure if we divulged anything important.

I saw Ellika Maven get up from her chair and pull a slip from the ball. I saw Silk Bintty get up walk up to the platform. But then I saw something I hadn't seen from my seat at the Reaping. I saw Sheek's parents, in the very front row, looking skyward, praying to God that she wouldn't do what she had told them she would. And then I saw Sheek herself – doing what they prayed she wouldn't.

This was too much for Sheek. Dissolving into tears, she ran off to her room. I, on the other hand, continued to watch. I saw the lame boy get up and struggle to the stairs. I saw his parents, too, crying. The camera showed a close up on them, and then it zoomed in on his deformed leg. The commentators had begun to talk about the rule allowing the lame boy to compete when I stood up and volunteered.

When I was sure the camera was showing my mother, I turned away so as not to dissolve into tears like Sheek.

Knowing what I was doing, Jasper looked back at the screen, then nodded at me. When I turned back to the screen, the Reaping in District 2 was playing. That's when I got the first look at my future teammates.

Cleota, the girl from District 2, was about a head taller than me. She had long, flowing blonde hair. She looked very slender and muscular, but I knew I could overpower her if it came to it; on the other hand, Lex, the boy, was about as tall as I was, but his muscles were bulging and made me look like a twig. I thought that he might have the upper hand if we were to wrestle, but surely that muscle slowed him down.

Next came District 3. I was unimpressed with the boy, but there was something about the girl. Her name was Steffi, and she looked like she knew something that everyone else didn't. It was unnerving, but I felt safer when I thought of Sheek, Cleota, and Lex by my side.

Following this Reaping came District 4. I saw the girl first. Apparently, her name was Blythe. She had Sandy blonde hair that was straight as a ruler and fell past her shoulders. She was so slender that she looked almost dainty. I would have counted her out if I hadn't been told that she was trained. The boy, Garth, was tall and thin. He wasn't as muscle bound as Lex or I, but he looked fit and I wouldn't doubt that he was a runner.

The rest of the Reapings came and went. Few contestants made an impression on me. The boy from 7 looked tough, but I had a feeling that together, Lex and I could definitely take him on. Also, towards the end, I saw two girls, Districts 11 and 12. They were both twelve years old and Willa, the girl from 11, bore a striking resemblance to Opal. Blaire, the girl from 12 looked so innocent that it was hard to imagine her killing anything, let alone a human being.

Slightly disturbed, I went back to my room. I laid down on my bed and forced myself to forget the faces. Forget everyone and forget the Hunger Games. And with that blissful thought, I fell asleep.

My dreams were filled with home – the smells, the sights, the sounds. Even the people. The faces of my classmates swam around in my head, and I so longed that I was there, in school, learning. At least I'd be home.

As my eyes fluttered open, I saw that the room around me was bathed in golden light and that there was a window to my left; however, after a few moments, the lack of bird song alerted me to the fact that this golden light was not the same golden light that had woken me this morning. This light was not that of a rising sun. In fact, this wasn't earthly light at all.

Groggily, I stood up and walked to the window. What little sleep remained in me was jolted from its place when I beheld the sight outside the window. There, before my very own eyes, was the Capitol.

The buildings rose taller than any I had ever seen, and the lights shone brighter. The city was so shiny, so pristine, that, though I knew I was to be an honored guest, it had never been more apparent that I wasn't welcome.

It was then that I knew that I truly and completely hated the Capitol. Why would they bring me to this marvelous place but to toughen me up and throw me into the arena to die?

These thoughts brewing in my head had put me in a cross mood, and when I heard a knock on the door, I snapped, "What?!"

Sheek's voice met my ears. "We're here," she whispered.

"I know," I stated, matching her quiet tone. "and so do they."


	4. Dazzle

Chapter 4

When we exited the train, we were once again bombarded with cameras and screaming paparazzi. Sheek told me that Jasper had instructed her not to speak to anyone. I followed her example of an impassive countenance as we were led to a sleek silver car waiting for us only a couple of feet from the door of the train.

When we got in, we were amazed by the car's interior. This one made the one we had been in earlier that day seem like a tin can. The seats in this car were of the finest leather, and there were small compartments below the seats that, when opened, dispensed a can of cold liquid. After toying with the small piece of metal on top of the can, I found that if you pulled it up, it pushed a hole through the top.

Perplexed, I looked at it, then at Jasper. He looked amused. "Drink it," he told me. I did so.

The liquid was unlike any other I had ever had before. It was bubbly, sweet, and it made me burp. When the first one came up and I almost screamed because I was so startled, Jasper laughed so hard that when we arrived at our destination, his face had turned as red as a ruby.

When we got to the building we were driving to, our car drove around it and entered a garage in the back. I thought we were getting out, but a reproachful look from Jasper and the fact that the doors were still locked told me that I was wrong.

Our driver reached above his head and touched a button on a control panel. A panel on the wall opposite us slid aside, revealing a tunnel that sloped down into darkness. We drove into it and continued through this tunnel until we reached a door.

Again, I attempted to leave the car but Jasper scolded me once more. "Sheek, this is where you will leave us until tonight after the opening ceremonies," he said. She looked confused, but she opened her door and went through the door.

"Opening ceremonies?" I asked. He nodded.

"You will be in a parade that will lead you to the training center which will be your home for the next three days."

"Simple enough," I said. "Is that why we need stylists?"  
"For now," he responded.

The driver got back in the car and we continued down the tunnel. It wasn't two minutes later that we stopped in front of a door exactly like the one Sheek had gone in. Finally, Jasper nodded his approval for me to get out of the car.

I opened the door and walked quickly to the door. I was about to turn the handle when the door swung open of its own accord. Surprised, I walked in timidly.

Immediately after I entered, I was surrounded by three people of the Capitol. Two of them were women, and on was a man. They pushed me through hallway after hallway until we finally emerged in a large circular chamber.

All the walls in the chamber were plain white. After the darkness of the tunnel, it hurt my eyes. In the middle of the room was a table. They pushed me to the table where they sat me down.

"I'm Otis," said the man. "This is Vellisa," he said, pointing to a woman who had died her skin green and her hair, which was in thousands of tiny braids down her back, blue. "And this is Mella," he said pointing to the other woman. She seemed to be every color of the rainbow, and it was starting to make me dizzy.

"Apollo," I said quietly.

"Oh we know!" said the woman called Mella.

"Yes we do! We watched you in the Reaping!" said Vellisa.

"So are you my stylists?" I asked.

They all shook their heads and Otis said, "We're your prep team. We have to make you ready to meet your stylist." This confused me a little, but I shook it off.

They had me undress and stand naked on the table. They all started to circle me and start taking notes on clip boards. I had never been naked in front of women, but they looked so outlandish that it wasn't hard to forget that they were humans under all that paint.

When they were finished with the examination, they started to work on me. They began cutting my hair shorter to that when they put some sort of goo in it and pushed it back, it stood up straight. I thought it made my head look like a cactus, but I didn't tell them this.

They then proceeded to wash every inch of my body without shame. I hadn't been this thoroughly washed, since… well, ever. When they finally put down the bristled brushes, my skin felt like I had just wrestled with a porcupine.

Apparently, my nails needed some major work because Mella left the room and returned with a tool that looked like a drill. The only difference I could see was that there was a small pad on the end that would smooth away any imperfections. When they had finished with it, my nails were shinier than any of the buildings in the capitol.

Finally, they applied about a pound of white makeup to make my facial features disappear which was followed by about a pound more to recreate them in sharper contrast. I had been dreading the lipstick, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was bubblegum flavored.

After what seemed about two hours, they declared me ready to see my stylist. They left me alone, and I was tempted to put my clothes back on, but I figured my stylist would make me model my birthday suit again anyway.

A woman of incredible height walked in. Her hair, skin, and clothes were a calming shade of lavender. She walked to me and shook my hand, introducing herself as Eonna. Her partner, Jode, was working on Sheek.

"For the opening ceremonies," she told me, "you and Sheek will be wearing complimentary costumes that reflect your district's main industry. As you are from District 1, you will reflect luxury items – jewelry to be precise."

This kind of scared me. What kind of guy wants to be dressed up as jewelry. But I had been instructed not to argue, so I didn't argue. "Ok," I said, and I left it at that.

Eonna started by painting my entire in a heavy gold paint. She then applied a thin silver paint that didn't entire cover the gold. It made me look shiny, like one of the statues we used to see in museums before the rebellion.

She told me to close my eyes, so I did. I kept feeling pressure on my lids, but she didn't elaborate on what she was doing. After both eyes had repeatedly been pushed on, she told me to open them and examine myself in the mirror.

The entire surface of each of my eyelids was covered in diamonds. It made my eyes feel heavy. She told me that whenever I blinked, my eyes sparkled. This seemed kind of disturbing to me, but I knew the Capitol had odd taste.

My lips were next. They were also covered in jewels, but not diamonds. They were coated in rubies. My nails were covered with sapphires. She then began an intricate twisting pattern of emeralds over my entire body. When she had covered all of my right arm and most of my torso, I began to think they looked like vines. I wondered if this was the intention. I wondered fearfully if I would be nude.

Contrary to what I had thought she would do, Eonna only covered my arms, torso, neck, and face. She then handed me a pair of skin-tight silver pants. I looked incredulously at her. Was she serious? 'I think I'd rather be nude.' I thought to myself.

I didn't say anything, as I had been instructed, but this instance was the hardest to hold my tongue. Silver tights? She had to be kidding.

She wasn't. I was dressed and bedazzled when she led me through the tunnels I had entered earlier. I thought we were going the same way, but the tunnel led, not to a door, but to an elevator. Eonna and I entered and she pushed a button.

After a breathtakingly fast ride, the doors opened and we entered a massive circular hall. Surrounding the hall were twelve elevators. Occasionally, one would open and a tribute in a fantastic costume would be led out by a stylist from the Capitol. They all looked spectacular. I must look like some sort of ridiculous rainbow.

It wasn't hard to find Sheek. She was dressed almost exactly as I was. The only difference was that she was wearing a silver top as well as the pants. I was surprised to see that she didn't look half bad.

The hall was quickly filling. I caught a glimpse of Blythe and Garth covered in fish-looking scales. I figured that now wasn't the right time to approach them.

Before I knew it, I was being whisked toward the grand doors to the room. There were twelve chariots before me, and I noticed that one of them was covered in the same spiraling pattern of emeralds as my body was. I figured that Sheek and I would be riding in that one, so I walked over to it.

It was being pulled by two snow-white ponies. I was apprehensive because there were no reigns, but I thought that if there had been, I wouldn't have known how to use them.

Eonna instructed Sheek and I to get in the chariot, and before I knew it, the doors had opened and our ponies started walking. As a final thought, Eonna yelled, "Give them a show!"

We drove out onto a narrow runway that went on for miles. I couldn't see the end of it. And all around us, there were people of the Capitol. They were screaming our names. They were reaching out. They wanted to touch us. They wanted a show.

I looked over and saw Sheek waving and blowing kisses. I couldn't really do that, could I? So I waved, then I flexed my muscles. I pretended to spot a girl in the crowd and wink at her, and instantly a thousand girls began to scream their heads off. Smiling, waving, posing. I was actually having fun.

I caught a sight of myself on a massive screen above the city. The picture was a couple seconds behind live, so I saw myself blink. The effect was amazing. The bright lights of the capitol shone off the diamonds on my eyelids like a thousand suns. I suddenly felt very grateful to Eonna.

When we reached the end of the walkway, we pulled up around a large circle. We waited there for the other districts, and I had to say that none of them had anything on Sheek and me.

When all twelve chariots were present, the anthem of Panem played. I could see on a screen that they were showing close-ups of each of the districts, but we seemed to get more time than most. I didn't mind.

After the anthem, the horses walked around the circle one last time before walking us to the Training center that would be our home for the next three days. Here we would be trained and scored. I couldn't wait.

Sheek and I took the first elevator to floor one and found Ellika, Jasper, and our stylists waiting for us. They couldn't stop telling us how fabulous we were. I couldn't stop believing them.


	5. Training

Chapter 5

I woke up the next day in a relatively good mood – as good a mood as you can be in when you know you're about to be thrown into an arena full of people trying to kill you. I hadn't showered for two days, and since I was going to be training today, I figured it was long overdue.

Fifteen minutes later, I was not only cold, but I smelt of strawberries and vanilla. The complicated control panel in the shower had given me hundred of options in a technical lingo that had me baffled. One button I had pushed had made the water scalding hot, so I pushed another that made it ice cold. The next button had disastrously made it alternate between the two.

When I finally got the temperature and pressure regulated, I attempted to use some soap to horrific consequences. It began to squirt a fizzy lather that smelled of ripe strawberries. Not partial to strawberries myself, I pushed another button and the fizzy lather mingled with the vanilla foam that was now streaming out of the shower head. I gave up at that point.

I dressed in a pair of swishy black shorts and a grey t-shirt. As my strategy was to intimidate the other tributes, I ripped off the sleeves. Satisfied, I walked out into the dining room where breakfast was being served.

I sat down next to Sheek. I saw her take a breath through her nose, take a second, then she began to laugh. I hadn't heard her laugh since we were boarding the train, and it was unnerving. But it was enticing, the idea of laughter, so I laughed as well. I laughed harder than I should have, and it really wasn't that funny, but I needed to laugh.

I gorged myself on sausage, bacon, pancakes, eggs, biscuits, and toast. I also drank a cup of coffee for the caffeine though I despised the stuff.

When Jasper entered, he sat down at the table with a I-mean-business look on his face. He kept that look on his face until we had both finished eating.

"Now," he spoke slowly to us. "When you get in the training center, head immediately to your best apparatuses. You want to intimidate the other tributes."

We nodded at the respective times, and he continued to drone on. "The gamemakers, who will be creating and controlling everything in the arena, will be watching you. At the end of the three days, you will have a private session with the gamemakers, and they will give you a score, one being the worst, twelve being the best, on how likely you are to survive in the arena. Any questions?"

"Why do we need scores?" asked Sheek. I nodded my head at this question.

"People called sponsors will be permitted to buy and send you gifts in the arena. I will control the gifts, and make all final decisions. These sponsors will probably be betting on you if they are sending you gifts."

This kind of scared me, the thought that they would be betting on my life. I shook this thought off and got up from the table. Sheek and I were instructed to go down to the floor below where we now stood, which was where our training would take place.

When we stepped out of the elevator, we saw that we were the last district to arrive. They pinned a large letter 1 to Sheek's back, and when I felt a gentle tugging at my back, I was sure that they were doing the same to me.

They awkward silence that surrounded us as all twenty-four of us was very uncomfortable. I was thankful when the gargantuan doors before us opened, revealing the biggest room I had ever seen. It was at least three times bigger than our gymnasium at school.

At one end, there were tables stocked with lots of weapons, many I had seen, and some I hadn't. At the other end were stations devoted to survival: camouflage, edible plants, shelter, snares, and many more.

An instructor had walked out in front of us when I looked back at the front. "You are free to visit any of the stations," he said to us. "In the weapons section, you may request a sparring partner, but you may _not _fight with each other. Go ahead," he finished, and he walked away.

I walked immediately over to the weapons section. I was debating whether to practice with a sword or mace first when the tributes from four and two came over as well. I put off talking to them until lunch so that we wouldn't attract that much attention.

I saw the boy from two, Lex, I think his name was, pick up a sword and request a sparring partner. It took me only a few moments of watching him to realize that we were very evenly matched. I also grabbed a sword and a partner and began the twirling dance I did when I had a sword in my hand.

I saw that Lex watching me, and I quickly disarmed my opponent with an unnecessary flourish. It was ignorant of me, but it made me look like I was better than I was. Apparently, Lex thought that he needed to outclass me because he requested another partner, and began sparring with two people at once.

This set off a small competition between us. I requested two more partners so that I was fighting three at once. They were good, but my evasive strategy eventually wore them down, and one by one, I disarmed them. Lex had been watching me the whole time, and he wore a grin that I was sure meant he was impressed.

I next went to the archery station. I saw the girl from District 4 there, Blythe, and she was good. Better than Sheek, who I had never been nearly as good as. She hit the target from a hundred feet better than I could hit it at twenty feet. It was unnerving, but also comforting to know that she would be on my team.

Blythe left the archery range, but my eyes followed her to the knife throwing table. I saw that she was just as good with knives as the bow. With five knives, she could hit the dummy in the eye, neck, heart, side, and groin.

I had just mastered the bow from thirty feet when they called for the tributes to eat lunch. In the lunch room, there was a buffet stocked with sandwich meet and bread, fruit, salad, and a lot of other food I didn't recognize. I only took what I could buy in District 1. I sat down at one of the tables, but when Sheek tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to another table occupied only by Cleota, the girl from District 2, I got up and sat by her.

"Hi," I said timidly. "I'm Apollo."

"Cleota," she murmured.

"You were trained by Sadima West, weren't you?" I asked. Her eyes widened, and then she nodded. "Would you like to join a little alliance we have?"

She looked perplexed, but she then said, "Who is we?"

I pointed to Sheek and myself, but I told her that we were also hoping to enlist Lex, who was from her district, and also the tributes from District 4.

"Ok," she said, beginning to perk up. "I'll help you talk to Lex. He isn't too fond of meeting new people. You'll need my help." I smiled, and we walked over to Lex.

He was sitting against a wall solitarily. She sat down by him, and quietly greeted him. I stood near enough to them that I could hear what they were saying, but I didn't want to seem intrusive. After she had told him the plan, he nodded briefly, then got up and walked over to me. He shook my hand, and said, "I'm Lex. I saw you with the sword, and I'd rather have you as a temporary friend than an immediate enemy."

"Same here," I said, and we nodded our heads. I left it up to Cleota to talk to Garth, the boy from 4, and I said I would talk to Blythe.

When I walked over to her, I saw that she had set up her lunch in an overly orderly fashion. She had taken her napkin, folded it and placed her fork on it. She had also taken one of the saucers, and used it to hold her cup of hot tea. I saw that she was eating a banana, but not as somebody else would eat a banana. She was using a fork and knife, and cutting off bites.

Laughing nervously, I sat down next to her. "Hi," I said nervously. She didn't look up until she had finished chewing, wiped her mouth, and folded her hands neatly in her lap.

"Hello," she said. "I am Blythe." I nodded and introduced myself as Apollo. She held out her hand and let me shake it. She gave me a pleasant smile.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join our group. We are planning to enter the games with an alliance of the tributes from districts 1, 2, and 4. What do you say?"

"I think that that is an excellent idea!" she exclaimed. I smiled, and asked her if she would like to join us at the table we had claimed as ours. She nodded and followed.

When we arrived at the table, I saw that Cleota had successfully enlisted Garth. He was quiet, but very observant. He listened intently to every word said.

Lunch finished, and we were sent back into the training room. Lex, who I was beginning to like more and more, went with me to the weight lifting station. He could bench press much more than I could, but I could nearly squat as much as him.

Looking around at the other weapon stations, I saw Sheek working on hand-to-hand combat with an instructor, Garth throwing knives, Cleota swinging a mace, and Blythe throwing spears. All were doing worryingly well. I had started to think of them as my friends, but seeing them in their element threw me back to reality – these people were trying to kill me.

I left Lex at the weight lifting station and joined Blythe at the spear throwing range. I stood as far back as she was to make myself look better than I actually was, but I saw that standing next to her only threw the difference in our skill level into sharper relief. Blythe hit the bull's eye nine out of ten times from one hundred feet. I was lucky to hit it once from fifty feet. I was beginning to see that Blythe may have been the biggest threat of all, even Lex.

I was getting mentally exhausted at the weapons stations next to all of my companions. I decided that some rudimentary knowledge of survival skills might help me. I walked over to the station that taught knots and snares, and began with the basics of knot tying. By the end of the training day, I could make a snare that would leave an opponent hanging from one leg in a tree.

A man came around and told that training was over for that day. Sheek and I met up outside the room and rode in the elevator together. When we got to our flat, we stepped out and were immediately bombarded with questions.

"How did you train?"

"Did you talk to anyone?"

"How did you compare to everyone else?"

"Did the gamemakers watch you?"

Confused, both Sheek and I looked at Jasper and Ellika with shock evident on our faces. They asked us the questions again, and we said that we trained alone. We decided not to tell them about our alliance with the other four because our connection with them was through a man who was wanted by the Capitol.

They looked satisfied, and we all sat down for dinner. Occasionally, they asked about the training, but, for the most part, we ate in silence. The food was good, as all of it was in the Capitol. I went to bed bone tired and stuffed like a turkey.


	6. Scores

Chapter 6

I awoke the next morning after a vivid dream. I dreamed that the games had started, and I had been killing. I killed until there was no one left, but I still wanted to kill. I needed to kill.

Scared, I walked to breakfast and found Sheek waiting for me with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a plate of food in the other. I ate it graciously and quickly for we had little time before we went down to training.

Again, when we arrived, they pinned numbers on our backs and gave us free reign of the facility. This time, I noticed the rather large group of people that were standing on a balcony watching us. They all had clipboards and would stare at one person in particular and take notes.

Whenever I found one of them watching me, I went to a familiar apparatus and did my best to impress them. I repeated the feat of defeating three sparring partners simultaneously as I had the day before, and I saw that I had left an impression on the woman who was watching me.

Only a couple of minutes before lunch, I met up with Cleota at a station I hadn't tried before. It was the slingshot, which I hadn't used. She didn't seem very good with it, and I could tell it wasn't her weapon of choice. She had made it clear that she would be content in the arena if she could get her hands on a mace.

We struggled to learn the sling together, and struggled to contain our laughs when she accidentally shattered one of the lamps. I had to admit that I was having fun, but I was getting too close to Cleota which I figured was a bad idea.

At lunch, we all sat together. Nobody else in the entire hall was sitting together except for the two twelve year old girls from districts eleven and twelve. I figured that in their innocence, they had desperately tried to form an alliance. I looked back at my alliance and thought that the girls' chances of survival were pathetically slim.

We kept up a small amount of conversation, but it didn't feel real. Occasionally, one of us would tell the others to laugh hysterically as though someone had just told a joke, but for the most part, we talked about our experiences since we had arrived in the Capitol. We didn't talk of home much because it was too painful.

These people were becoming a special sort of friend to me. I wanted them dead, but at the same time, I didn't want to die. I knew that any of their survivals meant my death, and I definitely didn't want that. But it seemed like an impossible task to kill them, and I wasn't sure I was up to it.

After lunch, we returned to the training room. I returned to the archery range because I felt that of all the weapons they were likely to put in the arena, this was the one that I needed the most work on.

I counted exactly one hundred arrows. I fired one after the other, not stopping until I had shot exactly one hundred arrows. When I finally shot the last one, I stepped forward and examined the target. Exactly eighty arrows had landed on the target from forty feet away. Exactly twenty-one had landed on the bulls eye.

This self-devised exercise had not only helped me gauge my accuracy percentage, but it also helped me learn how to quick-fire. I could now shoot eighteen arrows in one minute, where I had shot nine before.

I left the archery range for the knife throwing range where I took up the same strategy of repeatedly throwing knife after knife until I had thrown one hundred. This time, when I approached the target, I didn't see any knives on the floor, meaning that all of them had hit the target. That was great; furthermore, forty-eight had hit the bulls eye. I was very pleased, but my self-satisfaction deteriorated when I looked over and saw Blythe throw a knife directly into the bulls eye from twice the distance.

Before they ended training for the day, I went to the survival side and learned how build a fire. Nobody knew for sure what the climate would be in the arena, and I figured that it wouldn't hurt to know how to manufacture a flame.

Just as before, they announced the end of training, and, just as before, Sheek and I rode the elevator together. When we got to our floor, we were prepared for the questions, and, as expected, they came.

They were all the same as the day before, and so were our answers, except for the question concerning the gamemakers. I had noticed them today, and I was sure they noticed me. This bit of information impressed Jasper, that they had seen me fend off three swordsmen.

After dinner, Jasper told us how the next day would work: in the morning, we would train as usual, but after lunch, we would each go for a private session in front of the gamemakers. This was where we would show them all of our skills and it would comprise most of our training score.

I wasn't too nervous. I was sure that if I could show skills in multiple fighting apparatuses that I would get a decent score. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't get a whole lot of sponsors, but I had a huge alliance, so it didn't really matter to me.

I went to bed, and, what seemed like only minutes later, I was awoken by the sun streaming into the open window. I got up and was debating what to wear when I decided to take my second shower. Hoping it would be better than the first, I stepped into the bathroom.

The water hadn't alternated temperatures this time, but it had been flying out of the nozzle with so much pressure that it had left welts on my back. I didn't smell of strawberry and vanilla, but I would have preferred that over this new combination – oranges and spearmint.

I ate a hasty breakfast of muffins and coffee with Sheek before descending to the training room in the elevator. This time, before being let in, we met up with the others and began discussing the private sessions.

"I hope I do well," said Cleota.

"You'll do fine," insisted Lex. Everyone nodded except for Blythe who wore a grin that I was hoping was meant to be reassuring. Sheek seemed to notice her expression too, and we smirked at each other when everyone else had turned the other way.

I looked at Garth to see if he wanted to contribute, but he averted from the eye contact. He was the only one in the group who didn't mean more than a comrade to me.

Blythe was odd in a way that made her lovable. Lex was my equal. Cleota was so friendly. Sheek was so fun. Garth was just… decoration. He was there to complete the picture of the wolf pack. I couldn't help thinking that he was going to be the first I would take out.

I caught myself thinking this. Here, in this room, I was condemning this boy to death. I was planning how to kill him. I couldn't believe myself. I couldn't believe these games and what they did to us.

They let us into the training room, and I walked briskly to the sword station. I had decided to warm up all of my best weapons before my private session with the gamemakers. My strategy was to fight three swordsmen with a sword, then fight one sparring partner with a mace, then fight two people hand to hand. If they still wanted to see more, I would throw some knives or shoot some arrows.

After I warmed these all up, I had a little bit of time until lunch. Not wanting to start something new and not be able to complete it, I took a seat on a bench at the end of the room and watched the other twenty-three tributes.

I saw the girls from eleven and twelve working together at the climbing station. I saw the boy from District seven who I had taken notice of earlier learning some basic wrestling moves. It was obvious that he had picked this station out of all the combative stations because it was on the border and because it wasn't occupied by any of my group. I also saw the girl from District 3, the one who had the knowing look about her, watching Blythe at the archery range. Not shooting at the target next to her, actually watching the arrows fly from the bow to the target.

I took note of this, wondering what she was doing. Five minutes later, when I looked back, she wasn't at the archery range, she was at the spear throwing range. Once again, she wasn't watching the person throwing the spears; she was watching the spears themselves. Something was definitely up with her.

They called for Lunch, and I was the first to get food. We were quiet for the most part, all of us nervous about the upcoming session with the Gamemakers. I realized that I would be going first. I would be going before everyone else. At least I would have the Gamemakers' attention.

After lunch, we were all seated in the antechamber outside of the training room. After only about two minutes, they called my name and I was directed inside. I saw all the gamemakers seated at a long table, every eye on me.

I requested three sparring partners. I picked up a sword and went to work. It was somehow easier this time which proved to me that these training sessions were actually constructive. After I had defeated them, I requested the mace sparring partner. I disarmed him and set the mace down. I requested the two hand to hand partners, and I took only a few seconds to immobilize both of them.

I was about to walk over to the knife throwing range when they told me that I was excused. I thought that it went very well, and I walked out of the room. I waited by the elevator for fifteen minutes for Sheek, and she emerged from the room flushed and sweaty.

She said her session had gone pretty well, except that she had lost in one of her fights to the man with the mace. She had hit the bull's eye with one shot on the bow and arrow, knives, and spear. We rode up to our flat in the elevator, and were, for the third time, assaulted with questions from Jasper and Ellika.

The questions came faster and more plentifully this time because they had repeat every detail of our sessions. They were excited when I told them that I had defeated all of my opponents, but were shocked when Sheek said she had lost to the man with the mace, but moderately impressed with her feats of accuracy.

I hadn't eaten much lunch because I was nervous about my private session with the gamemakers, but now I was ravenous. I ate four bananas, a sandwich, and a cup of soup made from some vegetable grown in District 11 and imported to the Capitol.

I changed out of my sweaty clothes and into a comfortable pair of flannel pants and a warm long-sleeve shirt. I was anxious for the scores to be reported over the television, and I didn't know what else I could do, so I sat down in a plush chair in front of the screen and waited there for the program to start.

When it did an hour later, I had dozed off slightly and was surprised to see my face up on the screen. I was the first to have my session, so I was the first to get scored. Under my face was a big flashing 10. I was surprised but happy.

Sheek scored a 9 which wasn't surprising. Lex scored the same as Sheek, and Cleota scored an 8. I was surprised at this one.

The next face that came up was the boy from District 3 who scored an unimpressive five. I had relaxed a little bit when the face of the girl from 3 popped up. Her score shocked me. She had scored an 11! How did she score an 11?

Garth's face came up next. 8. Unimpressive. Another reason why he'd be the first to go. Blythe came up with an 11. This didn't surprise me. I had watched her all three days, and I hadn't seen her miss once. If an apparatus required aim, she could use it perfectly.

Most of the other tributes passed without making an impression, scores ranging from three to six. The boy from seven scored an 8, and the girls from eleven and twelve scored sevens. Other than those three and the girl from District 3, I didn't think there was anything to worry about.

I went to bed and was pleased that I got a 10, but I was so curious about the girl from 3 that I couldn't sleep. How did she get that 11? All I knew was that she was my biggest target.


	7. Interviews

Chapter 7

I woke up the next morning and was relieved at the thought that I wouldn't have to go to training. It was such a relief to know that my muscles would finally be given a rest.

As though I had all the time in the world, I took a shower and didn't get in until the water temperature and pressure were perfect. This took about ten minutes, but I didn't care. I had nowhere to be.

Because I had gotten out at intervals to press the buttons before I used them on myself, I smelled masculine for the first time since I had volunteered for the games. I dressed and walked to the dining room.

Sitting around the table with aggravated expressions on all of their faces were Sheek, Ellika, and Jasper. They glared at me when I sat down and began eating an orange. "What?" I said, though my mouth was full.

"Have fun in the shower?" asked Sheek mockingly.

"More fun than I've been having," I replied.

"You were in there for over an hour. We should have started working half an hour ago! This could seriously affect us and our sponsors!"

"What work? I thought that all we had left before the games started was the interview." She had a look on her face that made it clear that I was missing something.

"We don't just have to show up for the interview, we have to prepare."

I thought to myself that I didn't need any preparation, that it was just an interview. Was I wrong or what?

Sheek and I had planned to be trained together, but after the fight over breakfast, she decided to be trained alone. She left with Ellika leaving me alone with Jasper. I asked him what he was training me for, and he said that he would be coaching me on what to say for the interview.

"We need to give you a strategy. You need to be memorable for the audience. We have to decide what we want them to remember you as." I nodded, but I really didn't think that a strategy was necessary for an interview.

"We'll try ruthless and coldblooded. With your impressive ten in training and those muscles you've got, you're a dead ringer for it. Try to answer these questions as if you were a mindless freak who had nothing but killing on his mind."

I did my best to be heartless, but it didn't work out to well. Jasper said that I couldn't scare a five year old.

We next tried sullen and hostile. The results weren't any better. The instructions were to answer yes or no. I would answer yes or no, but then I would add to it and eventually just rattle on about nothing in particular. Jasper said that, unless I was planning to talk my opponents to death, that we would have to pick something else.

Nothing seemed to do the trick. We tried humble, aggressive, assertive, obnoxious, loud, and funny.

After about two hours, we found the solution – passionate. To be passionate, I had to talk as though I worshipped the idea of the Hunger Games. I had to make them believe that I volunteered for it because I considered it the highest of honors.

This strategy was kind of a two-in-one: I could be bloodthirsty and humble at the same time. I could act like I had nothing but killing on my mind and as if I were thankful of the Capitol for introducing this competition. It was brilliant.

For the next hour, we perfected my strategy until I could answer all of the questions in Jasper's practice book without messing up once. By that time, it was time for lunch.

When Sheek came in, she walked with a gait, and as soon as she sat down, she requested somebody to rub her feet. A servant came in with warm oil and began a massage on her feet while she ate. As a result of this set up, I accidentally kicked the servant under the table a couple of times.

After Sheek's reaction to Ellika's lesson, I was quite scared. What would she have me doing that made Sheek's feet hurt so badly?

When I entered the room, Ellika gave me a smile that was so obviously fake that I almost cringed. "You're going to be working on your posture and stage presence with me, dear," she said.

"That doesn't sound too hard," I said. She gave a little giggle which did nothing to reassure me.

It was hard. She had me in a suit that hugged me so tightly that I was reminded of Opal trying to tackle me. The pants wrapped around my legs so tightly that I could hardly take a step without feeling the fabric tighten up in one area or another. The jacket was so unyielding that I had not choice but to stand up straight.

The shoes were the worst part. They were heavy and made of polished leather. Ellika reprimanded me for dragging my toe on almost every step. She made me pick my feet up, but not stomp. She made me take small, measured steps around the room.

When I had finally mastered walking an hour and a half later, we started on sitting. I had to sit directly onto the chair and place my hands in my lap. It proved surprisingly difficult, and took at least half an hour to master. We finished off the lesson with smiling while speaking. It was easier than the other things, but still pretty difficult.

I finished early, and was told to meet my prep team in my room. When I entered, they immediately removed all of my clothes and began to prep me as they had on my first day in the Capitol.

They washed my hair and body with a gritty soap. It hurt at first, but when they washed it away, my skin tingled and was soft to the touch. Next came my hair. They washed it, conditioned it, clipped it, washed it again with more soap, and finally called it good. I was hoping they wouldn't do my nails again when Eonna came in.

She dressed me in another suit. This one wasn't as stubborn as Ellika's, not to mention that it looked so much better on me. It was made of a silky silver fabric that was light as a feather and, thank goodness, rather stretchy. I could walk easily and sitting was hard at all. The shoes, which were leather but the same color as the suit, were much more manageable as well.

The ensemble was finished off with a lavish tie that was inlaid with real diamonds and sapphires. The blue and silver combination made my bluish grey eyes pop out, and did wonders for my skin tone.

"Amazing," I told Eonna. She smiled but said nothing. She was a woman of few words. I didn't really mind.

I ate dinner next to Sheek. She was dressed in a silver dress that exaggerated curves that I knew weren't actually there. They made her look odd in my eyes, but I knew she would look drop-dead gorgeous to any other adolescent boy in all of Panem.

She wore gloves that were studded with actual diamonds and topaz. Just like the sapphires lit up my eyes, the topaz made her golden eyes gleam. I realized just how observant our stylists were, and how ingenious they were also.

We were escorted out of the flat and into the elevator. The whole ride down, which took all of ten seconds, Ellika was giving us last minute instructions. She was annoying, but I knew that, deep beneath all of that makeup and hair, she cared about us.

When we got out of the elevator, they lined us up at the very front of the line. Sheek went before me, and Cleota was behind me, with Lex behind her.

I was happy and just as talkative as any of them, but then I caught the girl from District 3 looking at us and listening to our conversation. I gave her the meanest glare I could muster before remembering Jasper telling me that I couldn't scare a five year old, let alone a girl who had mysteriously scored an eleven in training.

She smiled back at me. I was taken aback. She giggled as she mouthed the words ten and pointed at me. She pointed at herself and mouthed the words eleven. This really made me mad, but I thought that this was what she wanted so I resisted the urge to ball my fists.

I turned away from her and resumed conversation as if I had forgotten all about her, but she remained at the forefront of my thoughts. How had she gotten that eleven? Why was she so cocky? What made her so sure of herself as to taunt me, one of the two biggest guys here?

Just then, we were led to a small area outside the training center. We could tell that we were behind the stage, and there was a flight of stairs and a door that surely led to the place where we would be interviewed. We were seated and given a small talk on how the interviews would work. Each of us would have three minutes to talk, after which time a buzzer would sound, signifying the end of the interview.

We started to hear the crowd fill up. It grew louder and louder until I became sure that every seat was filled and every person in the Capitol was here to watch me talk.

Pretty soon, we heard a loud voice boom over the noise of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! I welcome you to the first ever Hunger Games interviews. Tonight, we will officially meet the twenty-four tributes before, well, you know." Horrifyingly, the audience laughed hilariously at this. I found it rather disgusting.

The voice continued to boom out. "I, Julius Avery, will be your host for tonight. And we will begin with Sheek Marther from District 1!" Everybody screamed wildly as Sheek walked through the door and out onto the stage. I was sure I could hear the pained moans of a few boys in the crowd, and I smiled.

Sheek's three minutes passed in a blur, and before I knew what was happening, it was my turn. I took a deep breath, and then turned the handle and walked through the door.

On the stage, there were two big, red armchairs. Sitting in one of them was Julius Avery who wore a suit that had small spikes running along the seams. His makeup was all black and white which gave him a startling appearance.

I took the chair next to him. He smiled and said, "So, Apollo, you volunteered for the Hunger Games. Why?"

"Well," I said in my humblest voice, "I just saw it as a great opportunity to prove myself to Panem. And where else will I get that kind of glory and respect? Not in District 1, let me tell you. And if I have to kill a couple people to do it, so be it. It might actually be kind of fun," I said innocently, but the message was clear.

"We certainly do have a competitor folks!" said Julius to the crowd. They applauded, and we both smiled. When they had died down, he returned his attention to me. "So, you got a ten in training. That's an impressive score. How do you think that will affect your chances?"

"I think it may put a target on my back, Julius," I said. "But it may also make them wary of me. And let me be the first to tell you – they should be."

His eyes widened, and he looked at the crowd in surprise. They were screaming their heads off. I was putting on a show, and they wanted more. Julius asked me what I was looking forward to most about the games, and I said truthfully, "Julius, I look forward most to the interview between you and I at the end of the games."

This sent the crowd over the edge. They were lapping up every word I spilled. I wanted to keep talking, but the buzzer went off, and I walked off the stage. I thought it had gone great.

The rest of the interviews passed without many surprises. Cleota, Lex, and Garth all acted like ruthless killing machines, but none to the effect of my act. The girl from three hinted that she had something that nobody knew about, but was careful not to divulge the slightest detail about it. The boy from seven seemed pretty tough, and the small girls both seemed overly innocent and denied any real skill behind their sevens.

We were escorted back into the training center and rode the elevator to our respective floors. Ellika, after telling Sheek and I how wonderful we were, forced us into our rooms. She told us that we needed all the sleep we could get. I knew she was right but I was really nervous for the coming day.

The thoughts that filled my head were violent and scary, and they were all about the next day. I eventually fell into an unwilling sleep, but the thoughts followed me into my dreams. I didn't sleep very well that night, but I was pretty sure that nobody did on the eve of the Hunger Games.


	8. The Cornucopia

Chapter 8

I was woken up very early by Jasper. He said that it was time to go. I was confused for a minute, but I remembered that by go, he meant to my potential death. You can imagine what this happy thought next to the fact that I was being woken up three hours earlier than normal did to my moral.

Sheek and I groggily ate breakfast. While we did this, Jasper talked us through the beginning of the games. I didn't really want to listen, but I knew that this would be important.

"When you enter the arena, you will be on a metal disk – one of twenty-four surrounding a giant cornucopia. Around the cornucopia will be supplies, increasing in value the farther in you get." We both nodded.

"You have to wait on your metal disk for sixty seconds. When that time is up, a gong will ring, and the games will begin. If you choose to run into the cornucopia and get supplies, there will be fighting, and many will die. It is expected to be the most lethal part of the games, being that this is the first and there haven't been any test runs."

This made sense. They wanted us to be tempted into running into the cornucopia, so they placed supplies in it. I asked Jasper if those supplies included weapons, and he said that there would definitely be weapons.

I had made up my mind – I was going to rush into the cornucopia as fast as I could. I didn't have time to tell Sheek this, but I guessed that our entire group would.

They loaded Sheek and me into two separate hovercrafts. She was accompanied by her stylist, Jode, and I by Eonna. They lifted off and began flying over the shining Capitol. As much as I hated the place, I hoped I'd be back.

I was pumped. I was excited. I was ready. I was actually looking forward to it. I had volunteered with some enthusiasm which had disappeared while I was in the Capitol, but it was back. This was my element.

After about an hour in the hovercraft, the windows darkened. I could no longer see out of them, which meant that we were nearing the arena. The adrenaline was shooting through me, and I was dying to start. (no pun intended)

Just before we landed, a woman came in and made me sit still which wasn't easy. She took a long syringe out of a black container, and told me that it was a tracker so that the gamemakers could find me at all times. It hurt when it went in, but not very bad. It left a small lump in my arm that throbbed a little.

We, Eonna and I, were escorted from the hovercraft into an underground tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a small room with little inside. There were merely two chairs, a mirror, and a table.

Eonna and I sat in silence in the chairs. After a little while, I package arrived. She said that it contained my clothes. When she opened the package, she pulled out a plain brown T-shirt, a green hooded sweatshirt, some black loose-fitting pants, and a pair of knee-high lace-up leather boots.

"The boots are waterproof," said Eonna. "And the pants are made of a material that will dry incredibly fast. Expect some wet weather or climate." I nodded. This made sense. "The sweatshirt is reversible. One side is black, and the other is light brown. The landscape won't be consistent throughout the entire arena."

This was very helpful. It gave me an insight into the arena before I was even there. "Another thing," she said. "The boots lace up to your knees, but if you're not in wet weather, the laces are each over four feet long. Use them if you need them." I wouldn't have thought of this on my own.

We didn't talk much after that. Finally, she received a call on a phone, and told me that it was time. I didn't know what to do after that, but she did all the work. She went over to the mirror, tapped it twice, and a touch screen lit up on the surface of the mirror.

She pushed a button, and the mirror rolled aside to reveal a large glass tube. She pushed me forward to stand on the metal disk at the bottom of the tube. I waited there for another thirty seconds before it started to climb upwards. She gave me one last smile and thumbs up before she disappeared from view.

The tube was dark for another minute, but something above me shifted, and I could see daylight. I surfaced, and I came out into the arena. Around me, twenty-three others did the same thing.

Before me was a gleaming golden horn. Scattered about on the ground were an assortment of items. Only ten feet in front of me was a loaf of bread and a roll of bandages. Farther into the clearing, I could see weapons of all sorts: Maces, swords, knives, two bows, each with a quiver of arrows, spears, slings, and clubs.

I looked around at my fellow tributes. I saw Cleota a few spaces to my right, and Garth next to her. Blythe, Sheek and Lex were on the opposite side of the ring. I noticed that the girl from three was only three spaces to my left.

Scanning the landscape, I saw that the arena was split in half – one half was made of dense swamp land, and the other half was covered by a plain of tropical trees and shrubs. The large circle, in the middle of which was the cornucopia, was made solely of grass.

I had seen what I needed to see, and I now focused on the task at hand – staying alive. I was going to rush into the fray as soon as the gong rang. I was going to get my hands on a weapon, and I was going to kill the first person I saw.

I picked a weapon in particular. There was a knife only about forty feet away. I could get to it quickly, and it was the nearest lethal weapon. I was going to g-

The gong rang out and all thought were wiped from my head except for that knife. I ran like my life depended on it, which it did. A little more than half of the tributes ran into the cornucopia. I was faster than most, certainly faster than anyone else around me. I got to the knife, picked it up, and assessed the playing field.

Some people were timidly picking up things around the edges. Others had run all the way into the horn and grabbed whatever they could.

My assessment ceased quickly as I saw someone running at me. I recognized him as the boy from District 6. He was armed with a club, which put me at a disadvantage with only this knife. If he had had any skill in fighting at all, I would have been scared at that moment.

He swung his club at me, and I quickly stepped back and avoided it easily. He pressed forward, and I again stepped back. This pattern continued for a couple more swings before I decided to mix things up. After all, we were walking towards the cornucopia; therefore, we were getting ourselves deeper and deeper into danger.

As he swung his club to the left, the weight of the thing pulled him. I stepped in and plunged my knife into his side. I felt the blade rip through skin, muscle, and sinew before stopping at the hilt.

I heard the boy gasp. He gave a whimper, then a moan, then finally a scream before falling to the ground. I pulled the knife out of him, and he didn't bleed. This meant he was dead. This meant I was a murderer.

There would be time for remorse later, I knew. At that moment, I had to be vigilant. I had to be aware of what was going on, for if I didn't, I would be a sitting duck.

I looked around and saw Cleota swinging her mace at the boy from nine. I saw Lex and Garth working together on the girl from eight. Sheek was wrestling on the ground with the boy from twelve. Blythe had a bow and was backed up against the cornucopia waiting for a target.

I heard the ruffle of the grass behind me just in time. I sidestepped as a hand bearing a knife swung into the empty space that had just been occupied by my head. I turned to see my attacker: It was the girl from three.

I looked around and saw a package of throwing knives. I grabbed it, and pulled out a couple of lethal-looking blades. I began throwing them at her, one after another, just like I had in training.

The girl dodged them all. She just hopped from side to side like it was nothing. I couldn't hit her. The more knives I threw, the more knives that littered the ground behind her. Eventually, I ran out of weapons. I looked around for more weapons. There were none.

"Blythe!" I yelled. She turned and saw my predicament. She pulled the bow string back, and fired an arrow straight at the girl's heart.

I was so confident that Blythe would hit her that I relaxed a little. After all, Blythe never missed. She had hit the bulls eye every single time in training. This was no different, right?

Wrong. The girl stepped impossibly quickly to the left, but as if dodging wasn't enough, she reached up, and snatched the arrow out of midair. I couldn't believe it. She had caught the arrow.

I lunged forward to try and tackle her, but this, too, she sidestepped. As I fell onto my stomach, I knew what was coming. I rolled to my right just in time to see the point of the arrow be embedded in the soft earth.

I got up and ran towards the cornucopia. I grabbed a sword from the pile, and turned around, ready for the girl, but she wasn't there.

I saw her running towards the tropical area of the arena. Her hands were full. She had grabbed two backpacks, a spear, a couple of knives, and a large roll of wire. I looked for another adversary and found the boy from eleven. He was skirting the edge of the clearing, looking for an opening to the good items.

I ran at him with my sword help high. He had grabbed a wooden club, and he raised it in defense. Out weapons collided, and a terrific thud echoed around us. There was a large gash in the wood where my sword had hit it.

I swung my sword again, hoping to connect in the same spot. I didn't, so I swung it again. This time, my sword hit in the exact same place as the first time. The blade sliced through the wood like it was butter.

I had only intended to break his weapon. I had intended that my blade would sail through his club and fly directly into his eye. I had planned to run him through on the next blow, but something about killing him without the express intention had surprised me. 'Oh well,' I thought. 'It comes to the same.'

When I looked around at the cornucopia, only seven people were left standing. Cleota was still in combat with the girl from District 10. I watched as Cleota masterfully faked downward, then, seeing that the girl had moved to defend her legs, used the mace's momentum to swing it up at the girl's head.

I could hear the impact from where I stoop, a hundred feet away. It sounded kind of like when you crush a metal can under your foot. I almost retched.

As the girl fell, the six of us looked at one another. We had done it. We had survived. And now that we had done it, we had all the supplies we needed.

We all walked forward and began inspecting the pile of supplies at the base of the cornucopia. One of the most useful items we found was a pair of glasses that Blythe recognized. She said they allowed the wearer to see in complete darkness. We also found a tent that would keep out all types of weather.

We congratulated each other, then found some first aid supplies and began patching up our wounds. I seemed to be one of the few without a serious injury, but I had accumulated a couple of cuts and bruises. Blythe, too, had nothing wrong with her. Everyone else had gotten at least one serious wound.

Garth had been hit by a thrown knife. He was bleeding badly, and we were about to go back to the pile to look for some better first aid equipment when a silver parachute fell out of the sky.

Attached to the parachute was a bottle of disinfectant and a large circular bandage that wrapped around the arm. He said the disinfectant helped and it wasn't stinging so much. I thought that he shouldn't have gotten hit in the first place and that he didn't belong with us if he were that weak. It was cruel, but I knew I had to kill him in the near future.


	9. Hunting

Chapter 9

We grouped the supplies into a large pile. We even sorted the food into its own pile, weapons into another, and survival supplies into a third pile. We were pretty disorganized and unsure what to do.

Nobody knew what to do. Should we wait? Should we eat? Should we hunt? All these ideas were mentioned, but nobody wanted to establish themselves as leader. Finally, Blythe got up, went over to the food pile, and picked up a packet of crackers.

She opened them, and began passing them around. We ate in silence, and when the crackers were devoured, every one of us noticed exactly how hungry we were.

While we grabbed more food, cannons went off from overhead. Jasper had failed to mention it to us, but our teammates told us that each cannon signified a death. They didn't shoot off the cannons until all the fighting had finished on the first day.

I counted the cannons: one, two… ten. Ten dead already. And two of them were because of me. I was halfway disgusted with myself, and half proud.

"How many did each of you kill?" asked Sheek.

Cleota held up two fingers. Following her lead, I held up the same. Lex had only killed one, Garth hadn't killed any on his own, just one with the help of Lex, so we didn't count any. Blythe had killed two, and Sheek one.

"That means there is at least one other person in this arena capable of killing. We don't know who, but they could be a threat," voiced Lex. He was right.

We all nodded. Until that moment, I had forgotten that we weren't alone. "What if it was that girl from three?" I voiced. They all looked at me, and one by one, nodded. "Did you see her dodge those knives, then catch that arrow?" I said. Blythe nodded, but nobody else had been watching.

We made camp near the outskirts of the tropical rainforest section of the arena. The temperature had been hot and humid, but as night began to fall, so did the temperature.

The darkness was becoming overwhelming, and finally, Blythe dove into the pile of supplies, found some matches, and built a fire. Not only did it keep the darkness at bay, it stopped the advancing cold.

As the last rays of sun disappeared over the horizon, we looked towards the cornucopia and heard the anthem of Panem playing. As it did, the faces of the dead appeared in the sky.

The first to appear was the boy from three, followed by the girl from five. Next came both from six, the girl from eight, both from nine, the girl from ten, and the boys from eleven and twelve. That meant the two twelve year old girls had survived.

We decided that we should sleep in shifts, and one of us should stand guard over the supplies with the night-vision goggles. We agreed that two people would split the shift, and we would go in order of our interviews. That meant that Sheek and I would split the first night: she would take the first shift and I would take the second.

Because we figured we would have a rough day the next day, we went to bed early and left Sheek the sole conscious being in our camp.

Sleep didn't come easy. It was like falling asleep in a horror film, only to find that your dream is a nightmare. I saw the faces of the two boys I had killed swimming in front of me, taunting me. They whispered the word murderer.

I felt something tangible touch my shoulder. I sat straight up, the dagger pressed against Sheek's throat.

"Rough night?" she asked, the sarcasm plain in her voice. As the corporeality of the situation became clear, I lowered my blade. She laughed nervously, as did I. It might have looked funny to the people in the Capitol; however, they didn't hear the apprehension in Sheek's laugh that meant she feared her dreams becoming nightmares.

My watch was uneventful and painfully boring. During the first fifteen minutes, I had been amazed at the night-vision goggles, but even they became dull. I heard a few noises, but none of them announced the arrival of another tribute.

When the first rays of sun announced the coming morning, I woke everyone. Lex and Blythe also had violent spasms as they woke. I told them that I understood, but we laughed afterwards. Luckily, the bow Blythe had grabbed hadn't been strung or else I would have been toast.

I had just been finished coaxing an unwilling Garth into consciousness when Cleota spoke out loud. "Breakfast," she called. I looked over and saw that she had dug into the pile and grabbed a large pack of dried beef and a strange fruit that I didn't recognize.

We ate together, and decided to continue the watch schedule through the day. Cleota would stay at camp while the rest of us went out hunting. We would come back for lunch, and Lex would replace her. It seemed the fairest way to decide who would watch, plus it stopped one from working two nights in a row which would really take its toll.

Whether to search the rainforest, as we now called the tropical area, or the swamp was the question. Lex and Sheek were convinced that the swamp would slow down somebody we were chasing and make them an easy target for Blythe's bow. The rest of us, Blythe, Garth, and I, argued that more of the less-strategic tributes would be in the rainforest, and we should weed them out first. Eventually, majority won.

The farther we ventured into the rainforest, the darker it became. Eventually, the canopy of leaves overhead became so dense that the sky seemed to be a solid green.

After about half an hour of walking, it began to rain. Not much of it reached us on the floor of the rainforest, but we could hear the terrific roar of water above us.

The water began to pool up around our feet, erasing not only _our _footprints, but any that had been left by other tributes. This was inconvenient because Blythe could track fairly well.

Eventually the rain came to a stop. Just as the noise ceased, we heard another noise. It was a twig cracked under the foot of someone who obviously thought that the noise of the rain would mask it. We all turned in the direction of the sound.

There was a tall boy about thirty feet away, directly behind us. I thought he might have been following us, but it didn't matter now. We had him in our sights now.

The boy turned and ran. He was fast, I had to hand it to him. A couple of times we lost him, but his clumsy feet always put us back on track. We were closing in when we burst from the rainforest and into the clearing with the cornucopia.

I saw that Cleota grabbed her mace and was running towards us. The bow turned to the side and was about to run when someone behind me yelled. "Give up already, kid!"

It was Blythe. She had loaded her bow and pulled the string. Seeing defeat, the boy, who I now recognized from ten, held up his hands and walked towards us.

When he reached us, Garth stepped forward and patted him down. He found a pocket knife in his back pocket and a compass around his neck. We pocketed these items, though we had no need for them, and looked back at him.

"Hi," he said timidly. I had absolutely no idea why he was speaking. If he was going to grovel for his life, he could save it. "I'm Art."

"Hi Art," said Cleota. "We're going to kill you." She hoisted the mace above her head and was about to swing when he spoke again.

"Wait! You can't kill me."

"And why, exactly, is that, Art?" she asked mockingly.

"You need me," he said confidently, but his face exposed his true emotions: fear and apprehension.

"Tell us," said Blythe. "What do we need you for? We have the three strongest boys in the arena, two of the strongest girls, and the best markswoman you've ever seen. I'll say you're fast, but we don't plan to do much running away in these games anyway. So unless you're unimpressive six in training doesn't quite tell us enough, what can you tell us that would make us spare you?"

This surprised me. I had never really heard Blythe speak so viciously. She wasn't one of those people that could reduce a person to tears with her words, but her soliloquy broke this kid pretty well.

"I know where you can find two other tributes: the boy from five and the girl from seven. They were my alliance, but if you'll spare me, I'll show you where they hide."

This actually made sense. If the kid was telling the truth, we would get two tributes instead of one. If he was lying, we would just kill him.

We called a group huddle to discuss the plan. It was decided that we would let him show us to the hideout, turn him loose, and then have Sheek follow and kill him. It was fairly diabolical, but it was the nature of the Hunger Games: every deal was temporary.

We were going to leave Lex alone to guard the supplies, but Art said that it was at least half a day there, plus waiting for the opportune moment, then half a day back, so we would probably be spending the night in the forest. Because Lex would want to sleep at one point, we left Garth with him.

It was now the hottest part of the day, and despite the canopy's ability to keep out rain on the floor of the rainforest, it seemed only to trap heat inside. It was becoming unbearable, and I was about to suggest turning back when we broke into a large clearing.

In the clearing, there was a small waterfall. It was only about fifteen feet high, but at the bottom, there was a decent sized pond. Across the surface floated hundreds of water lilies. It was shocking to find such beauty in such a bleak location.

"We are close," said Art. "We made the hideout near the waterfall, but not at it in case another group localized around it." This made sense. We were about to trudge on when Blythe suddenly darted from the group.

I thought that there was something wrong, like we were being attacked, or she had seen someone; however, she simply ran, jumped, tucked her knees in to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and splashed loudly into the water. I laughed, and followed her lead. I ran and dived into the water. It was cool and refreshing.

"Come on guys," said Cleota, the annoyance clear on her face. "What if we're attacked?" Sheek nodded behind her, and Blythe and I climbed regretfully out of the water.

"It isn't far," said Art. "only about five minutes from here." We kept walking, Art kept leading. And, true to his words, Art delivered us at the sight of the hideout in no less than ten minutes.

"This is it," he said in a hushed tone. "They aren't in there. They're out hunting I'm sure, but they may not be too far away, so best to stay close."

"Where is the hideout?" I asked. He pointed to a large cropping of bushes. It didn't look any different than any other bushes in the rainforest except for its size.

"In the middle, there is a large crater that we dug out. Easily fits four people."

"So what should we do?" asked Blythe. I wondered the same thing.

"If you don't mind me making a suggestion, I suggest that I point everything out about the hole, you let me go, then attack them while they sleep."

"Well, what else is there to know about the hole?" asked Sheek, and I wondered the same question. It was a circular hole, not too hard to figure out.

"You should attack right after they go to sleep. Raena, the girl, is less observant and not nearly as good a fighter as Trevor, and she has first watch."

"Is that it?" Sheek asked again, and I could hear the impatience in her voice.

"I think so," said Art.

"Then there isn't any point in me having to walk any more than I already have today," said Sheek. "So why delay the inevitable?" She pulled a knife out of her pocket and flung it at Art. It hit him directly in the throat.

He didn't make a sound. The only sound was the cannon overhead. Then nothing. Silence.

Who knew silence could be so loud?


	10. Pain

Chapter 10

When you looked at Sheek, about six foot, wavy blonde hair, full figure, plump lips, you wouldn't see what I saw now: a killer. You wouldn't see a girl who had killed a defenseless boy without a second thought. But I did.

I was angry. Was she just being lazy? Did she simply have no desire to traipse through the forest after a boy she meant to kill? Or did she want to intimidate the rest of us? Both seemed reasonable, but wholly unnecessary.

"Why?" asked Blythe. Cleota and I nodded, we both wanted to know why as well.

"You saw how fast he was. There was a very good chance he would lose me. Not only that, if I didn't catch him, one of you would kill me, and if not you, Lex would for sure. It was safest for our group as a whole. We got lucky when we caught him the first time, and he surely wouldn't be as stupid the second time."

"Ok," I said. "At least you had a reason behind it. If you didn't, I'd probably have to kill you." The rest of the group laughed, including Sheek, but I saw the understanding in her eyes. She knew me too well to think that I was kidding.

"Well, now that the cannon has fired, and the kids tonight will be pretty jumpy, we should probably wait a while before we attack," said Cleota. "I'm guessing they're out hunting and gathering right now, but when they get back, they'll eat and probably stay up late. Once they're asleep, we'll attack from two sides. Blythe, you and Sheek go over and lay in the bushes on the far edge of their camp. Apollo, you and I will stay here. When you hear this," she did a perfect imitation of an owl hooting, "its time. Got it?"

We all nodded, and Sheek and Blythe walked a short distance, and concealed themselves in a copse of bushes. I walked all around them to make sure they couldn't be seen, and approved they're hiding spot after making a few improvements.

Cleota and I laid down side by side in a small ditch between a bush and a group of trees. It was very small, not a whole lot of room to move around in.

"Why do we have to do this?" Cleota asked.

"Do what?" I responded, not sure what she meant.

"Be in the Hunger Games? Stalk innocent kids? Kill them while they sleep? It isn't fair."

"I know it isn't. But the stalking and killing is the nature of the games. It forces us to become things we're not." I looked over and saw that her tear was streaked with silent tears.

"The whole game is unfair, some things more than others," she trailed off, and I thought that she might be hinting at something.

"Like what?" I inquired. I looked over and saw that she was staring at me. And when she saw that I was looking, she looked deep into my eyes.

There was a slight pause before she spoke. "Like the fact that I'm not supposed to love you." Before what she said had registered, she leaned over and kissed me. I leaned into her and wrapped my arms around her neck.

I felt evil. This was wrong. I shouldn't be doing this.

I didn't know how I felt about Cleota. But this was my one chance to make an infallible ally, and Cleota seemed like a perfect target. I could trust that she wouldn't kill me until she was forced to, so I knew that she would always have my back.

The same didn't hold true for me. While she was watching my back for enemies, I was watching her back for the perfect opportunity to put a knife in it. I felt terrible about it, but I knew that if I rejected her, she would only want me dead even more.

Who knew? Maybe I would keep her around for a while, but one thing was certain. I was not going to die for her.

The night passed with more passion between Cleota and I, (sorry, have to keep it K+) but nothing serious. We kissed, and I was tiring of it very quickly when Trevor and Raena returned to camp. Night had just crept up on us when we heard the anthem blaring and the picture of Art in the sky illuminated everything around us.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Raena. "Art's dead." Trevor, who hadn't been looking, turned around and saw for himself that his ally was no more.

"No wonder he didn't show last night," Trevor said calmly. "I'd bet he had either been captured or caught in something." They seemed to be sad about Art. I wondered if they considered the fact that Art had betrayed them.

As darkness fell around us, I became tenser, and I could tell from Cleota's breathing and jumpy movements that, she, too, was nervous. Eventually, Trevor went to sleep, and Raena was left to guard the camp.

Raena, who I recognized from District 7, was not heavily armed. She had a short-bladed knife that would not defend her in the slightest. She wasn't looking at us. She couldn't possibly see us until it was too late.

I caught Cleota's eye and nodded at her. She gave the signal for us to move in, and we heard the smallest of sounds that meant that our noises had registered with Blythe and Sheek. We began to crawl on our stomachs towards the camp.

When we were only a few feet from the hole, Cleota jumped to her feet and let out a scream. I, too, jumped up and charged the defenseless children.

Trevor, who had been sleeping, was up in an instant, armed with a club. He batted off Cleota's first strike with her mace, but she redirected it and it hit him in the ankle. I could tell from the odd angle it jutted out at that it was broken.

Meanwhile, Sheek was attempting to wrestle the knife out of the girls hand while trying to strangle her simultaneously. It wasn't working so well, so I decided to lend a hand.

I initially tried to hold the girl's wriggling body still, but she kicked at me so forcefully that I had to stop. I then moved to the knife. Whenever I reached in to grab the blade, she swiped at me with it. She didn't connect the first few times, but I didn't disarm her either.

The fifth time I reached in was my downfall. I lunged farther in than I had so far, daring myself to face the pain that would come. I didn't prepare myself for what would come.

As my hand soared closer and closer to her hand, the blade moved closer to mine. When the metal connected with my hand, it sliced through it, flesh, sinew, and eventually, bone. My index finger fell to the ground, a lifeless, bloody, mass.

I wasn't prepared for the pain and the anger that welled up inside me. I just wanted to cause that girl as much pain as possible.

With my left hand, I grabbed a knife from my back pocket and threw it at her. It hit her in the shoulder, though I was aiming for her neck. She grunted but didn't cease her battle with Sheek. I was about to throw another one when it became apparent that I wouldn't need to. Blythe launched an arrow into her neck, ending her life in less than five seconds.

I heard the cannon, sealing her fate: she was dead. At first, I was mad at Blythe. I was going to kill her, and she was going to hurt on the way out. I was planning on breaking just about every bone in her body before finally slitting her throat. But then, I realized that I wasn't mad at Blythe, I was grateful. She had spared me from my fate of becoming a torturer.

Still pondering this, I hadn't noticed that Cleota had met her match in Trevor. He moved his club with speed that was almost inhuman. He could never hit Cleota, and she had hit him numerous times with her mace, but he refused to be phased.

None of us stepped in to help. It was apparent that she didn't want help. She wanted this fight for herself.

Slowly, Trevor began to slow down. His movements became jerkier, and he grunted a little after each swing. Cleota had worn him down, and he was beginning to lose his strength. Finally, after slowly deteriorating, he swung his club up a moment too late.

Cleota's mace ripped through his stomach, stopping halfway through his abdomen. The blood gushed from the wound, pooling at his feet. She pulled the mace back, and he crumpled to the ground. He was emitting a horrible gurgling sound as he struggled to breathe.

I was happy to see Cleota's mace sail through his neck, finishing him off. Not because he was dead and I was that much closer to going home, but because he wouldn't have to suffer and die alone, in pain, and scared.

We looked at each other. Only Sheek and I had sustained injuries. She had been cut around her arms and shoulders. I had lost my right index finger, and the stump was still bleeding heavily.

We searched their camp, and we found a large pile of berries, half of a wild duck, already cooked, and a few potatoes. We took their food but left their weapons. We had all the clubs and knives we wanted back at camp. And the sooner we got those weapons out of the arena, the better, for there was no chance for them to be used against us.

We began the long trek back to the base camp at the edge of the rainforest. It was very late, we were bruised, scratched, bug-bitten, missing appendages, and to make things even worse, it was raining.

My finger hadn't stopped bleeding when we were nearing camp. When we saw the fire, we let out a collective breath of relief. We would be warm and out of the rain. I was extremely happy when we ran into camp and I saw the pile of supplies. I ran over to them and grabbed a first-aid box.

I tried bandage after bandage but none of them staunched the bleeding. This went on for at least an hour before Blythe finally offered up a suggestion.

"We could cauterize it," she said. This didn't appeal to me in the slightest, even if it would stop the bleeding and light-headedness.

"No way, no how," I told her. She shrugged her shoulders, and turned back to the rest of the group. My refusal at cauterization came crashing down around my feet when a silver parachute fell from the sky. It was my first gift from a sponsor. Attached to the parachute was a box of matches: a clear message from Jasper.

He was telling me what I didn't want to hear. Cauterization was my only option.

I walked over to Blythe and asked her if she would help me do the deed. She nodded, rather excited, and told me that she had done it many times before.

I walked over to the fire and sat down. I expected to find Blythe behind me, but when I turned around, she had disappeared. A few moments later, she reappeared from the rainforest with a long, thick branch in her hands.

She sat down beside me and stuck the branch into the flames. After a few minutes, she pulled out the branch. It had a small, menacing flame on the end.

"Hold out your finger," she instructed. I did as she said. She was about to administer the flame to the stump when she thought of something else. "Stay here," she told me.

She walked over to the pile of supplies and pulled out a thick blanket. She pulled a knife from her back pocket and cut a swathe of the fabric from the rest. After folding it many times over, she returned to me, and told me to put this in my mouth so I didn't scream, and so I didn't bite my tongue.

We had gathered a crowd at that time. The rest of the group was sitting around the fire, watching intently, as if I were some show. I realized then that this had to be great television in the capitol. Things like this came second only to fighting. Who wouldn't want to see a sixteen year old who had lost his finger burn the tissue to stop the bleeding?

She took the branch and slowly brought it up to my hand. I could feel the heat from a few inches away, and I was thankful that Blythe had thought of the blanket. Slowly, she took the flame and put it to my finger.

The pain was at least five times worse than the actual cutting off of the finger. It was so intense that I could only try to pull away, but, try as I might, Blythe held my hand steadfast.

She finally released my hand, and I yanked it away. The stump where my finger had been was black; however, it was no longer bleeding which was a plus.

After thoroughly soaking it in water, I went to sleep with my finger wrapped in a bandage. The pain had started to recede, but it was still tender to the touch. I was glad that Blythe had had the idea to cauterize the wound, and glad that Jasper had convinced me to do it.


	11. Ambush

Chapter 11

In the morning, I wasn't so glad about the cauterization. The place where my finger had once been was throbbing, and, upon waking up and removing the bandage, I found that the skin was black and papery.

Blythe, who was currently on guard duty, saw that I was awake and examining my stub. She walked over and sat next to me. "Does it hurt?" she asked me.

"Like hell," I responded.

"Let me see," she told me. I lifted my hand, and she took it. After a few moments, she said, "The skin around the wound was burned worse than I would have liked, and the wound itself wasn't entirely closed by the heat, so there was a small window of time that infection could have crept in before it scabbed over. I suggest we find and administer some antiseptic immediately."

She got up and was about to walk over to the supplies when I spoke to her. "How do you know so much about this healing stuff?" She turned around and sat back down next to me.

"My parents owned a hospital during the rebellion. They took in any soldier that fought for our side and took care of them."

"How did you get so good at fighting then?"

"Victor taught me how to fight," was all she said.

"But why did Victor choose you as his girl prodigy?" She knew what I was talking about. Victor, her and Garth's mentor, had trained them specially, just like Bristol had trained Sheek and me.

"He broke his wrist," she said. I gave her a perplexed look, and she unwillingly went on. "When he came to the hospital to get it fixed, he found me throwing syringes at a homemade target in a backroom. I never missed, so he taught me everything he knew."

"That's a good story," I told her. "I wish I had a cool story as to why Bristol picked me. He just came into school one day, and he picked the strongest boy in the class."

Blythe laughed, and it caught on because I began to laugh too. It felt good to laugh, like all the tension in my body was flowing out. Unfortunately, our laughter woke up Cleota who had been sleeping uncomfortably close to me, and upon seeing Blythe and me sitting, laughing together, she gave Blythe a venomous glare.

I'm not sure if Blythe realized exactly why Cleota was glaring at her, but she got the message. She got up and walked to the supplies where she fished out a bottle of antiseptic. She tossed it to me, and with my left hand, I poured it over the wound.

By that time, Cleota had walked over and sat down next to me. We talked for a while until the rest of the group was up. I kept up the pretense of having a secret love for her, but it was making me sick.

Cleota was nice, but this secret love thing was very high-maintenance. I had to return the subtle winks when no one was watching. I had to tell her I loved her after every private conversation we had.

Not only this, but I was fairly sure that others were coming closer to figuring it out. Sheek gave me an inquisitive look when she woke up and saw me talking to Cleota without Blythe. Blythe wasn't approaching us to join the conversation, which surely meant that she knew something wasn't right.

Something had to give. If the four others banded together because that together Cleota and I were going to overthrow them, we would lose. I wouldn't be able to fight any two of them together. They were too strong, so this relationship was ruining my chances of success.

When we had all awoken and eaten some dried, salted meat for breakfast, the group started talking about where to hunt.

"We've taken out three of the people in the forest, which leaves how many left?" asked Garth.

"Eleven left in the arena, five that aren't us," stated Blythe matter-of-factly.

"Who are the five?" wondered Lex. He started to count on his hands: "The girl who can dodge anything, the big boy from seven, the two twelve year old girls, and one more."

Nobody seemed to know who the fifth person was. We decided that it didn't matter. "I say we start to hunt in the swamp," said Sheek. Her suggestion was seconded by Lex, Garth, and Cleota. Blythe and I were outvoted.

It was also decided that I should take the first watch of the day. I was perfectly fine with this, seeing as it meant being away from Cleota for a couple of hours. It would also give me time to see how my weapon skills would be affected without my finger.

The group packed weapons and emergency food into packs and set off within ten minutes. I accompanied them to the edge of the swamp because I was curious about this alien terrain.

The trees in the swamp were mangroves. The roots spiraled out just below the surface of the muddy water on the ground. The water wasn't very deep, so it was easy for the pack to walk through it. The only problem was that it slowed them to pace that would be lucky to make it a mile before they had to turn back and find me for lunch.

This presented a problem. They would hardly be doing anything if that was all th ground they could cover.

"We could leave an extra person behind and be back in the morning," proposed Sheek.

"Let's do that," said Lex. This kind of annoyed me. Lex had recently been trying to assert authority, ever since I had been injured. I thought he had been trying to take the position of leader.

"Fine," I said. "But who is going to stay with me?" Cleota immediately volunteered.

"No, not you Cleota," said Sheek. "It needs to be either Blythe or Garth because they are the best healers. Someone needs to be capable of helping Apollo out if his wound opens up again."

Everyone seemed to agree to this, except Cleota of course. It was decided that, because Blythe had taken watch last night, Garth would stay behind with me.

We sat around the fire, occasionally sipping from the pot of water that was constantly being refilled from rainwater in the rainforest. Little was said. My wound didn't open up again, but Garth thought that more antiseptic should be applied.

We were eating lunch when we heard something. It was a small sound. A sneeze, I recognized it as. It was faint because it had come from a ways away. We looked around and saw a boy who I recognized from District 8 on the edge of the rainforest. He had been watching us, but now we knew he was there.

He looked terrified. He got up, and began to hobble away. It was obvious that he had been injured and couldn't move very fast.

"Should we go get him?" asked Garth.

"One should stay here and guard the supplies," I reasoned. He agreed.

"Which should go?" he asked.

"We're wasting time talking," I said, getting up and grabbing my sword. I also took three knives and put them in my pocket.

"Be careful," he advised. "Don't make too much noise, Don't let him climb a tree."

I nodded, and set off running after the boy. When I reached the spot where he had been, I saw a clear trail of disturbed earth where he had dragged his bum leg. I followed the trail, and within ten minutes, I had him in sight. He looked over his shoulder, and a look of fear crossed his face.

I bridged the gap between us in only a few minutes. When it was clear that he wouldn't escape, he turned around to face me. He was slouched on his bad leg, breathing heavily. He began to whimper pathetically.

The whimpering was loud, and if anyone was near, they would hear it. I decided that I should shut him up as soon as I could. I was about to pull a throwing knife from my pocket when, suddenly, the whimper began to transform.

The whimper was no longer a whimper, it was laughter. The look of fear was no longer a look of fear, it was a smirk. The slouch was no longer a slouch, it was a strut.

I heard a thud behind me. I turned to see the boy from District 7 crouched on the ground after just jumping out of a tree. He was quickly joined by the girl from District 3 who had been out of sight on a low branch.

They all wore the same devilish grin. The boy from 7 had a sword. The girl from 3 was armed with only a knife, but I knew that evasion was her form of fighting. With my peripherals, I saw that the boy from 8 now had a club. 'Crap,' I thought.

The boy from 7 approached me first. "Hello, Apollo," he said coolly. "Let me introduce you to our group: this is Steffi," he said, pointing to the girl. "This is Levin," he said pointing to the other boy. Pointing to himself, he said, "And I'm Marko. We're very pleased to meet you."

"I can't say the same," I said mildly.

"We're going to kill you now," said Levin, trying hard not to burst out laughing. The rest of the group nodded, and Marko made the first move towards me.

He swung his sword, and I brought mine up to meet his, creating a terrific sound. He quickly whipped the sword around, aiming for my hip. I only just parried.

It was obvious that his blade was lighter and shorter than mine. I was doing my best not to let him get in close, but if I backed up too much, I'd be in range of the others.

When Levin joined into the fray, it became much more difficult. I could usually block the sword, but then the club would come flying and I would have to dodge it because I couldn't get me sword ready in time.

I was struggling to cope, and I wouldn't have lasted much longer when my best opportunity appeared. Steffi threw her knife at me, but it missed. It lodged itself in a tree on the other side of the fight. She was now unarmed.

I dodged one more blow from the club and made a run for it. As I passed her, I aimed a quick punch at Steffi, who, of course, dodged it. I ran as fast as I could, but Steffi and Levin were right on my heels. Steffi was faster, but she had no weapon, so she couldn't confront me.

When I reached the clearing with the cornucopia, Garth saw me high-tailing it out of the rainforest. I turned to face them again, and I waited for Garth to join me. But he didn't. I turned and saw him sitting by the fire nonchalantly.

"Are you going to help me?" I asked him, furious.

"Sure, I guess, if you can't handle it," he said mockingly.

When they saw that he had joined me, they retreated back into the forest. I turned to face Garth. "So you weren't going to help me?!" I screamed at him. He shook his head and raised an eyebrow.

"It was just a couple of kids. You couldn't handle it by yourself?" he asked me, the ridicule in his voice apparent.

"No!" I screamed. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Fine," he screamed back. "I will!" With that, he took a couple steps towards the rainforest.

"No," I said coolly. "You won't." And with that, I lunged forward and plunged my blade into his back. There was some resistance for a moment before I felt the blade burst forth on the other side. He fell to the ground, dead.

The cannon fired. I let the hovercraft take him, and I began to think what I would say to my group. How would I explain his death? How would I survive on my own until morning? Regardless, I had done what I had been planning to do from the moment I had met him in training: kill him.


	12. Trap

Chapter 12

The rest of my day was spent getting rid of evidence, and fabricating new data. I cleaned my blade with a swathe of cloth which I then proceeded to burn. I also scattered a couple of knives around the area as if I had been throwing them.

I was going to make it look like they had ambushed us here and not in the forest. I also gave myself a few extra cuts with my dagger before I bandaged them hastily. As the last rays of sunshine shone over the tops of the trees, I checked my appearance in my sword.

I hadn't seen myself since the start of the games. My hair was matted and tangled. I was so dirty that I doubted that my mother would allow me in the house. I had cuts and bruises everywhere. I looked like a killer.

As darkness finally enveloped the whole of the arena, I heard the anthem blare from overhead, and I looked up at the picture of Garth. As I laid eyes on him and realized that the only reason he was up there was because of me, I felt something.

It wasn't regret, which I had planned on feeling. It wasn't guilt. It was self congratulation. I was happy about what I had done. I had taken this game into my hands and killed. But where before the games, the old Apollo would feel terrible, the new Apollo felt good. One less step he had to climb at the end of the games.

As expected, Sheek, Blythe, Lex, and Cleota burst from the swamp about an hour after Garth's picture was up in the sky. It was clear from their winded and worried looks that they hadn't stopped running since they had seen that Garth was dead.

"What," panted Lex, "happened?"

"We were ambushed:" I told them. "The boy from seven, girl from three, and boy from eight. They snuck up on us and engaged us in battle. The boy from seven is good with a sword, but I fought him off. The other two went after Garth. He would have killed the boy but the girl stuck a knife through his ribs. They backed off after that, but not before I got a knife into the boy from eight's hand."

They continued to ask me questions, but I had thought of all of them before. They asked why the three hadn't ganged up on me, but I said that eight and seven were wounded and the girl from three wasn't a great fighter.

None of them seemed to suspect the truth that I had killed Garth. I wondered if the other group that I had been fighting moments before had seen me kill Garth. I doubted that they did because he was the only reason they ceased their attack. What was to stop them from coming back?

The group decided that I had had a rough day and should go to sleep. They would decide who would watch later. I was in no mood to sleep, but I took the opportunity to listen to what they were thinking about my story.

I positioned my sleeping bag near the group so that I could hear what they were saying. They mostly talked about the day's hunting. They hadn't found anyone, but they saw signs of life, mostly broken branches. They suspected the two twelve year olds were living off the sparse land, moving through the trees.

The subject of Garth's death wasn't brought up, and no suspicion was openly cast upon me. I was glad that my lie had gone over well, and I was already planning my next victim. Cleota was becoming very annoying with her endless love scheme. She was pretty high on my list, but Lex kept claiming credit for almost everything we did, asserting his rank as leader. For now, I would let him think that he was in charge.

I was the first to wake in the morning. I made the mistake of getting up before I looked who was on watch: it was Cleota. She had seen me and was now smiling at me. 'Great,' I thought to myself.

I walked over to her and she immediately began telling me how terrible yesterday was because we couldn't be together at all. I murmured my agreement, and she immediately began talking again.

It was a relief when Sheek got up and joined us. My relief quickly turned to anger when she spoke. "I'll keep watch. You two go into the rainforest and see if there is anything you can find to supplement our breakfast of dried fruit." Cleota was having trouble hiding her excitement at this. I was having trouble looking like I was having trouble hiding my excitement.

We weren't more than twenty paces into the rainforest when Cleota turned around, grabbed me, and kissed me. I regretfully kissed her back. She backed me up against a tree a kissed me yet more forcefully.

"We've got a job to do," I whispered into her lips.

"It can wait," she said.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh-huh," she said.

"Ok," I said, trying not to let the disappointment show in my voice. Eventually, I put my foot down… literally.

"Ouch!" she screamed. I had stepped on her foot, not entirely accidentally.

"Oh, I'm sorry Cleota," I whispered.

"It's ok," she told me. "Where were we?" she asked, leaning in for another round.

"We need to get looking," I said, and, thankfully, she listened to me this time. She didn't attempt to hide her disappointment as I had a few minutes earlier.

We found a bush of berries that we were pretty sure were edible. We didn't eat any until we brought them back to camp and checked with Sheek who was the best with plants. She okayed them, and we began to chow down on the fresh and dried berries.

"What should we do today?" asked Lex. Nobody responded, so I spoke up.

"Well, we have two options. Assuming the two twelve year old girls are teamed up in the swamp, and I'm sure the other three have a camp somewhere in the rainforest, we are one of three teams remaining. We can hike through the forest or try the swamp."

This made it all very clear. There were ten people left in the arena. Two were in the swamp, three were in the rainforest. We had to pick one.

"What if we didn't go hunting exactly?" asked Blythe. We all gave her looks of total misunderstanding. "The group of three ambushed our guards yesterday. What is to stop them from doing it again?"

We still didn't understand. Blythe looked very frustrated, but she continued anyway. "Let's lay a trap! We will pretend to go hunting in the swamp, but really we will lie in wait for an ambush. If they do turn up, we can walk around the clearing until we surround them, and then we can give them a taste of their own medicine!"

Everyone was in favor of this idea, but the part that nobody agreed on was who should be the bait. Some thought that Lex and I should be because we would last the longest in a hand to hand fight. Others thought that Blythe and Sheek should stay because they could hit a target from far away the most easily. Eventually, Cleota, the only undecided vote decided that Blythe and Sheek would stay at camp. Annoyed, the two of them walked away. I could see that they were both upset, but they would get over it.

The plan was to keep our formation until the following morning. We took food with us so that we could stay concealed all day and night and not worry about meandering back to camp for sustenance.

To keep us appearances if we were being watched, we entered the swamp. We walked a good hundred feet into it before we turned and walked through the swamp into the rainforest. We trekked around the rainforest for at least an hour before picking a small copse of bushes near Blythe and Sheek.

It was only midday, but we decided to eat. We feasted on dried meat and potatoes that Cleota had found on the way. It was a decent lunch anywhere.

We decided that since any attacks would probably come at night, we should sleep in shifts through the day. Only one person would sleep at a time, and only for an hour before they would be woken and made to take watch.

I soon found out that this idea wasn't such a good one because Cleota had her mind set on some serious romance time between us. I kept telling her that Lex would wake up and catch us, but her reply scared me more than anything else.

"Silly goose," she said giggly to me. "We can just kill him."

Now I was scared. Cleota was planning on killing for me. This was not good. I seriously didn't want this. It had to be over as soon as possible.

The sun was going down by then. We woke up Lex before eating. We were going to stay up all night so as to not leave Sheek and Blythe unguarded at all times. The night passed in silence. Few words were said between us. Twice I dozed off but I was quickly brought back to reality by Cleota's shifting body.

After hours of waiting, the first rays of sunlight appeared over the tops of the trees. Birds began calling out to one another. "Well," muttered Lex. "I guess we should get back to Blythe and Sheek."

Suddenly, the sound of objects falling through foliage came from all around us. I looked up, and my eyes met a familiar sight. We were surrounded by Steffi, Marko, and Levin. "I don't think so," said Steffi menacingly. She took a dagger from her pocket and held it daintily in front of her.

Lex began to get up and arm himself with a sword, but he was met by a foot on the back of his neck. Marko came over and took away mine and Lex's swords, and Cleota's mace. He tossed them into a bush about twenty feet away.

The three of them exchanged victorious glances with each other. They thought they had done it, had taken out three of the toughest players in the arena. What they weren't thinking was that this was a fight to the death, and we weren't dead yet.

Steffi took her dagger and went down to deliver a fatal blow to Cleota's heart. Cleota rolled to the side and, though she wasn't killed, was stabbed just above the elbow. I heard the blade scratch against the bone, but Cleota didn't cry out. Instead, she grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at Steffi.

Steffi moved from where she stood to dodge it, typical Steffi, but she left the path to the inner clearing open. Cleota ran out of the rainforest and towards the cornucopia.

Meanwhile, Lex still had a foot on his neck and I was being held at sword point. I took Marko's momentary lapse in concentration to get up. It cost me a slash to the hip, but it wasn't fatal. I grabbed a knife and launched it at Levin.

The blade was spinning towards his right leg, the one he was using to hold Lex down. He lifted it to dodge my knife, immediately freeing Lex. Lex stood to face Levin. He immediately punched him in the windpipe, causing him to fall to the ground in pain.

Lex and I teamed up on Marko. He still had his sword, but we ducked and dodged his blade until we got within striking distance. Lex released a vicious right hook to his cheek while I punched him in the gut. We had taken down the second boy, but I turned and saw the first.

His hands were above his head, clasped around the hilt of my sword which he had retrieved from the bushes. I was seconds away from death. Expecting to feel the metal pierce my body, I closed my eyes in fearful anticipation.

When the blow didn't come, I was pretty confused. I tentatively opened my eyes to see Levin holding the same pose, with one major difference: the arrow protruding from his neck.

He fell forward, revealing Blythe thirty feet behind him, bow still poised in her left hand.

Steffi and Marko had taken off as soon as they heard Levin's cannon fire. Lex and I were joined by the three girls. Cleota hadn't abandoned us, she had gone for reinforcements.

At this point, I was happy I hadn't killed Cleota during the night.


	13. Captors

Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for your patience! I have been so caught up with tennis that finding time to write is getting harder. Not to mention school starting on the twenty fourth. this chapter starts pretty slow but it gets good towards the end. Plus I put in a little bit of a cliffhanger for ya. Let me know what you think. I have some awesome ideas for the ending so keep reading!!! and if you have anything in particular that you want to see, let me know and I can try and throw it in.

Chapter 13

We had a minor celebration after such a dramatic victory. A few bottles of water were opened to celebrate, and we drank them heavily. It was about noon when we all settled down to sleep.

Cleota was going to take first watch until dusk, at which time I would take the next watch until about midnight. Then Sheek would take watch until the following morning.

This plan of sleeping for 18 hours pleased everyone, especially Lex and Blythe - They drew the two long straws exempting them from keeping watch.

I went to sleep with everyone else. My sleeping bag was warm and cozy in the shade of the rainforest. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light.

I started dreaming the instant I fell into unconsciousness. I was home in District 1, but it wasn't the District 1 I remembered. Opal didn't laugh. Obsidian didn't look up to me. Instead, they cowered away.

My mother didn't give me a hug. She shook my hand and didn't make eye contact. Had I done something to upset her? Had I scared all of them? Then I looked down, and saw, gleaming in the sunlight and dangling from a blue ribbon, was a medal that I somehow knew meant that I had won the Hunger Games.

I felt something on my shoulder. I sat bolt upright, the knife drawn and poised to slice the neck of my assailant in an instant.

"Going to kill me there, Apollo?" asked Cleota. I breathed a sigh of relief and put down the knife. "Your turn to watch," she said simply.

I nodded, and she went to lie down for a night of rest. I sat down at the edge of a tree on the border of the clearing and the rainforest to keep watch until the night was half way over.

The dream had started me thinking. What would life be like when I returned home? Would my family still think of me as Apollo? Or would I be someone or something else? A killer?

I told myself to stop thinking about it. I had eight more bridges to cross before I crossed that one. It would do only harm to think about returning home.

The watch was incredibly dull. Not only was there nothing to see, but the absence of Lex's usual snores wasn't there to keep me from going insane. The hours of boredom passed slowly as all hours of boredom did in the Hunger Games.

At the appropriate time, I woke up Sheek for her watch. She seemed well rested and ready for an uneventful watch. I walked back over to my sleeping bag and laid down to sleep again, not because I was tired, but because I wanted to escape my thoughts.

It felt like only minutes later when Sheek woke me up. After consciousness had fully registered with me, I figured out that it really was only a couple of minutes later.

"What?" I asked her quietly. I could tell from the immobile lumps on the ground next to me that I was the only one she had woken up.

"Intruders, don't make a sound." The word intruders instantly woke me up fully.

"Where?" I whispered. She pointed to the pile of supplies. I could just make out the sound of two sets of footsteps. Sheek, with her night vision glasses could see them.

"It isn't Steffi and Marko," she told me. "It's the two little girls."

This shouldn't have affected anything. They were just two little girls who had to die so that I could live. But they were so innocent. How could I kill them?

"We need to get Blythe up. She can hit them without them knowing we know they are there." I said these words trying my best to disguise my unwillingness to kill them. I was pretty sure Sheek knew why I wanted Blythe to do the deed.

"Ok," she said. "I'll get her. Wait here." And with that, she began to crawl over to where Blythe was sleeping. A few moments later, as Sheek was crawling past Cleota, I heard her shriek in pain.

I crawled swiftly over to her, removed her glasses, adorned them, and then looked at her. While she had been crawling, her hand had slipped in the mud and landed on Cleota's mace. She deep gashes in her hand were dripping blood.

I turned around just in time to see two long haired figures running into the swamp, their arms full of supplies, mostly food. They had heard Sheek shriek and had fled. I followed them with my eyes until they entered the swamp.

A couple minutes later after bandaging Sheek's hand, we woke the others. We told them about the two girls, and they were eager to hunt. Sheek and I, who hadn't been sleeping for the past couple of hours, were not so excited.

"You two can stay behind if you like," suggested Lex.

"Fine," said Sheek. "I'm staying. Are you going to stay with me, Apollo?" she asked.

On one hand, I was dead tired. On the other, I didn't want to miss the action. It seemed pretty selfish to think about it, but the Hunger Games were pretty boring. All we did was sleep, keep lookout, strategize, and have a fight every other day.

"I will stay here at camp, but not all day. You guys have to come back for lunch, and we'll switch." Everyone agreed to this plan. It was still dark, but the sky to the east was beginning to turn purple, and the sun would be up in a few hours.

They took minimal supplies, and I forbade them from taking food for fear of them staying out later than they had agreed to. I could almost hear my mom laughing at me, giving out curfews.

I assumed lookout as soon as they left. I promised to wake Sheek an hour after sunrise. I'd sleep until half an hour before noon when we would start on lunch.

My watch was going as boringly as ever. No sign of any other competitors or sounds of sleeping teammates to speak of. The sun had just risen when something happened.

I saw the two figures emerge from the swamp slowly. Their heads were turned towards us, and when I perked up at the sight of them, they turned back to the swamp.

Hurriedly, I woke up Sheek. I told her about the two small girls. She walked directly over to the pile of weapons and selected a spear and a couple of knives. I grabbed a long sword and our remaining bow.

We walked across the clearing to examine the place where the girls had emerged from the swamp. The mud had dried enough that we could still see the footprints where the girls had exited the swamp, reentered it, and then taken off the edge of the swamp towards us, but just out of sight.

Shocked at this development, me turned back to our supplies near the rainforest, we were surprised to see the two girls running back into the rainforest, each with a spear and a knife in their hands.

They had outsmarted us, tricked us into leaving our supplies. Something told me that they were smarter than we were, and we would have to think if we wanted to stay with them.

"We need to follow them," said Sheek.

"But we can't leave the supplies unguarded," I reasoned.

"They've taken what they want," replied Sheek. This started me thinking.

"But why did they need weapons?" I asked incredulously. Sheek's eyes widened with realization. If they had really wanted the weapons, they would have taken them last night. There must have been a new reason for them wanting weapons.

"What if they have Cleota, Blythe and Lex?" asked Sheek. This is what I had been thinking as well. "I'll go," she said. She was about to run towards the rainforest when I reasoned that the others hadn't ever been in the rainforest. Surely they were caught somewhere in the swamp.

"Fine, but I never went in the swamp before. I stood guard. You should go," she said. This was fine with me. I was sick of guard duty.

I took off into the swamp, following the girls' original footprints. They were headed into the center of the swamp, deeper than I had ever ventured into its muddy depths.

The path they took began to wind between certain trees, taking precise turns at odd angles. The multiple occurrences of these oddities alerted me to the situation. These turns were not coincidences – these girls were avoiding something.

I decided to find out what. Being extra careful, I continued the path I had been taking instead of taking the sharp angle. Pace by pace, I ventured into the mud.

I felt a slight resistance on my foot. If I hadn't been walking so slowly, I wouldn't have felt it at all. After pulling my foot back, I burrowed my hand into the mud and found a submerged wire. Gingerly, I followed the wire, pulling it from the muck.

The trap led to a bush about five feet from where I had originally encountered the wire. I grabbed a small branch that was lying on the ground. Crouched a good distance away, I tripped the wire with the small piece of wood.

A volley of cleverly disguised darts sprang from the bush. They embedded themselves in a tree twenty feet away. This was very clever, but not really conventional. Upon further inspection of the darts, I saw that they were carved from the green wood of the trees found in the swamp.

Also inspecting the bush, I found that the mechanism that fired the darts was made of hurriedly tied knots and rigidly cut shards of wood.

This mechanism definitely wasn't made by the gamemakers, nor by anyone else in the capitol. They would have used different materials. This was made by someone in the arena.

It couldn't have been made by anyone in our group. Nobody had the skill, nor had anyone spent any significant time in the swamp. Marko and Steffi, to our knowledge, only inhabited the rainforest. It had to be the two girls. Nobody else could have made this.

And if they could make this, what else could these two cute innocent girls be capable of?

I resumed the path through the swamp. The mud was beginning to fill with water again, and the trail was fading. I continually looked far ahead to remember the path for as long as I could.

Finally, the path wound through the swamp to a sandy patch that wasn't swampy. It was inhabited by the tallest trees in the arena, but there was something odd about it. I walked among the trees and camp upon what I had been looking for – my teammates.

They were caught in a net and suspended ten feet off the ground. I saw their weapons on the ground beneath them. Obviously, they had lost them as they were being hoisted into the air.

I picked up a stone and tossed it gently at them. It hit Cleota's leg, and she immediately perked up. The expressions that covered her face were confusing me.

First, she looked happy to see me.

Second, she looked shocked at something.

Third, she looked fearful.

That's when I heard a twig snap behind me. I turned, sword extended. It was the blonde girl from District 12. She had a whip in one hand which she immediately lashed at me with. The whip coiled around my sword and pulled it from my hand. It spiraled away where it landed in the sand fifteen feet away.

The second girl, the dark one from District 11 appeared from behind a tree. She too had a whip, but this one was homemade. The girl from 12 had obviously gotten hers from the cornucopia, whereas this girl had made hers from fibers from some plant or another. What worried me were the thorns that were hastily tied onto the whip.

She lashed out at me, the thorns hooking onto the skin on my arm. When she pulled back, pain exploded in my arm as the hooks were ripped from my flesh. I grabbed the mace from where it was slung on my back.

When the blonde one tried to hit me again, I parried with the mace, but with my hand high, I had exposed my unguarded torso to the dark girl. She lashed out at my flesh and again hit home.

The pain was excruciating. Instead of trying to stand and fight, I charged the girls. They spread apart, so I picked a target – the darker one. I tackled her, and as we toppled to the ground, I caught her in a headlock, my knife to her neck.

"Let her go or I kill your friends," said the girl.

"No," I told her. "Let them go or I kill her."

"How about this," said the girl who I was holding. "I push you backwards?" Her words hadn't registered when all her weight forced me from my knees onto my back. I rolled backwards to get back onto my feet, but the world flipped around as a rope settled around my ankles, and I was pulled up into the leafy foliage, fifteen feet from the ground.

So this is what they were capable of…


	14. Oh Snap!

Author's note: Hey Guys! Sorry for the delay on Chapter 13. I've had it written for about a week, and I uploaded it but never added it to the story. The good news is that you get two chapters within one day!! Haha! This whole chapter is pretty much action which I'm not accustomed to writing, so PLEASE review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading! And Please I'm desperate for reviews

Chapter 14

The blood was rushing to my head. My arms fell and dangled below my head. One of my knives hit the ground with a dull thud, the other snagged on my belt loop. The darts were still secure in my pocket. They were my only weapons at this point.

Animatedly, the girls began to converse. "What are we gonna do with them Blaire?" asked the darker girl from District 11. The other shrugged her shoulders, and then pointed to the knife beneath me.

"But we would have to throw it at them or let them down," the same girl said. "If we throw it and they catch it, they might use it. If we let them down, they might fight back."

"Let's kill the loner first," one of them suggested, I couldn't tell which. I was too busy preparing for my death. They walked over to me, whips at the ready.

"You don't want to kill me," I pleaded desperately.

"Yes, we do," said the blonde one whose name I had figured out was Blaire. She swung her whip half-heartedly at me. I pulled up and avoided it. When I reached the peak of my tuck, I could see Blythe and Lex being stirred by Cleota. This struck a thought into my head.

I fell back down and waited for the next swipe with the whip. When it came, I reared up, grabbed the knife from my belt loop, and threw it towards the others. I was aiming for the rope holding them up.

I missed.

The knife didn't hit the rope I had meant for it to. It hit Blythe directly in the left shoulder. She screamed in pain. I fell back down near my captors, all hope lost.

As the whip came at me a third time, I lurched up again. I reached the top just in time to see the knife fly from Blythe's right arm. I saw the knife slice through the rope inches from my face. I saw the tops of the trees above me distance themselves from me.

Then I felt the wind on my face, which was my first clue that I was falling. I hit the ground with a dull thud, thankful that there was the sand beneath me. Even with the sand, though, the wind was knocked from my lungs.

I caught my breath and was standing up when the first whip lashed across my face. I fell back and was once again staggering to my feet when the second, this one barbed, caught me in the chest. My shirt tore on the thorns, but my skin only received insignificant scratches.

Back on my feet, I lunged for my sword. My hand was inches from it when the whip wrapped around the hilt and it was once again flung out of reach.

Annoyed, I turned and looked at the two girls. They both stood and stared at me. A few long moments passed before anyone said something.

"How long have my friends been up there?" I asked, stalling for time.

"Couple of hours," suggested the girl from 11 nonchalantly.

"I presume you didn't fight them," I pressed, wanting to fully catch my breath and think. "Because if you did, I'm pretty sure you would be dead. Only a coward would do something so spineless to defeat an adversary."

"A smart coward," suggested the girl from 12. She raised her eyebrows, challenging me.

"Touché," I said. As these words passed my lips, I dove for the sword, and this time, my hand caught it and pulled it from the path of the whip. Unfortunately, I took another slash on my arm, thorns and all.

Getting to my feet, I heard the whistle that meant that the whip was flying towards me. I dove to the left, and the whip hit harmlessly in the sand where I had been moments before.

I grabbed one of the darts from my pocket. Having no training in darts, only dart guns, I had no hope of hitting them. I decided that all I needed was to distract them long enough to get to the knife on the ground a couple of feet away.

When the dart flew at them, they both flung themselves sideways. I also dove into the sand and grabbed the knife that I had dropped. Seeing that my opponents were still getting to their feet, I ran and grabbed the knife that Blythe had thrown to release me.

The first knife I threw at the girls, and, again, they dove sideways. Happy that this ploy had worked twice, I followed with my eyes that tied the other three up. It came down in a bush to my right.

I ran to the bush and cut the rope. I heard them scream as they fell through the air and the thud that meant they had hit the ground. I turned and saw that the girl from 11 had picked up my knife and was advancing towards the breathless threesome.

I hurled my other knife at her. She threw herself out of the way, and I ran at her. She ran back towards the other girl, and they both started to gather things into their packs.

Breathless, I ran over to my teammates. I roused them, and they grabbed their weapons and stood ready. Seeing that they were outnumbered, the girls took off into the swamp.

"Blythe, can you take them out?" I asked. She inspected her quiver. She had two arrows, but her arm was shaking badly from the knife wound.

"I can try," she told me. We ran through the swamp after them, careful to follow their exact trail. I warned my team about the booby traps, and we were extra careful.

Tromping madly through the mud, we began to catch up to the girls. Their legs were shorter, and they were deteriorating faster than we were. We were only twenty feet behind when we broke into another clearing.

The girls glanced at each other, obviously debating whether or not to stand and fight. They came to a consensus, and they spun on their heels and faced us. Taken aback, we weren't entirely ready for the onslaught of whip lashings.

After we were each hit a couple of times, we regained our concentration and we began to go on the offensive. Lex swung his sword wildly and cut a foot off the whip wielded by the blonde. Cleota picked up stones and began throwing them at the girls seeing as her mace was useless from this far away. I too did my best to weaken the girls.

Blythe took her time loading her bow. She finally had an arrow docked when the girls turned and once again began running. Blythe sent an arrow flying at them, and I saw it fly through the air and catch the dark girl from 11 in the neck. She feel face-forward into the mud, and a cannon fired from above.

"Willa!" screamed the other girl. Tears were flying from her face and she knelt by her companion. Blythe docked another arrow, but the girl began to run again. We weren't far behind her, and we could hear her distressed sobs.

She finally broke out into the cornucopia clearing. I could see Sheek tending a fire on the other side. I could smell sausage cooking.

The girl turned to face us. We were about to attack her when, suddenly, as the sun went down in the west, the whole clearing was illuminated by the picture of Willa from District 11 in the sky. Blaire, the girl from 12, took one long look at this before turning and facing us.

The transformation was anything but subtle. The sadness and fatigue on her face turned to anger and adrenaline. The sobs turned to growls. We weren't sure what to do.

The silver parachute fell down by Blaire – a gift from her sponsors. It was a gallon jug of something. I wasn't sure what it was, but Blaire suddenly put the end of her whip into it, and then put the entire thing besides the handle into it.

The whip now drenched by whatever was in the bottle, Blaire took out a lighter. With a final glance at us, she clicked the lighter and applied the small flame to the whip.

Suddenly, the whole whip erupted in flame. It was a fiery coil, and she suddenly spun it through the air around her. She stepped towards us and sent the whip flying at Cleota. It snapped only a foot away from her.

As Blaire drew the whip back, the light from the fire suddenly illuminated the words on the jug of liquid. _LIGHTER FLUID _it said.

Lex stepped forward, his sword raised. He charged the girl, and ducked the first whip. He stood, not expecting her to slash as quickly as she did. The whip wrapped around his neck, and Blaire, seeing a near victory, didn't pull back. Lex ran around wildly, not wanting to touch it with his hands.

Sheek ran up out of the darkness at Blaire. The young girl heard her and dodged the initial attack, but she also released Lex. He fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Sheek turned and launched herself at the girl again. This time, she hit home and the girl was thrown onto the ground, pinned beneath Sheek.

The whip was still in her hand, and she flung it up at Sheek. It connected, but it didn't snap as a whip should. It left only a small burn on Sheek's cheek.

Sheek took out a knife, and drove it through her windpipe. The girl was struggling for breath and emitting a terrible gurgling sound. Wanting to stop her suffering, Sheek drove the knife deeper, and then twisted the blade, severing the vertebrae and spinal cord. The cannon fired, and all was silent.

Silently, we all made our ways over to Lex who was lying on the ground in a crumpled heap. He had a string of red blisters ringing his neck, and they were hot to the touch. He didn't look good.

We carried him over to the campsite. About the time we got there, a silver parachute landed near him. I grabbed the small white box hanging from the silver fabric and opened it. It revealed a small syringe with instructions.

I would have asked Blythe to give him the medicine, but she looked faint. She had lost a lot of blood, and just as this thought occurred to me, she also received a gift of a large red pill from her sponsor.

I looked down at the instructions. They told me to stick the needle into the crook of his arm and inject the fluid. I was about to do so when a thought occurred to me.

While nobody was watching, I pulled the stopper out of the syringe and refilled it with lighter fluid from the jug, hoping it was poisonous. There was no need to keep Lex alive. There were only two other people left in the arena, and he wasn't that much of an asset anyways.

"Can someone else give Lex the medicine?" I asked. "I don't like needles." I said these things to protect myself from suspicion. Cleota came over and without hesitation, she injected the poisonous fluid into Lex.

It took only a minute to kill Lex. His breathing slowed and his heart stopped. The cannon fired, and everyone looked around in amazement. We briefly discussed that the medicine hadn't worked fast enough, and that was all that was said.

A fleeting thought crossed my mind. Would I be credited with killing Lex? Or would Cleota? She had been the one that injected the poison, though it was I who brought about his death.

I went to bed, thinking about the two girls who had died today because of me. If I hadn't gone to find my friends, Sheek and I would be one of three teams of two, and our advantage would have come crumbling down around us. But because of me, one threat had been reduced entirely, and Lex had been taken out of the game.

I wondered if the Capitol's viewers liked me. I was secretly responsible for the deaths of two members of our group. And it seemed very likely that I would be responsible for the deaths of the rest of our group before long.

I'm sure they were eating it up at that point.


	15. Decisions

Chapter 15

I was extremely pleased with myself. I was personally responsible for the deaths of two of the strongest competitors in the game, and no one in the arena knew that it was I who had killed Lex and Garth. The only people who knew were the audience, and there was no way for them to communicate with the competitors.

I slept dreamlessly, and woke the next day to the crackling of a fire and the all-too-familiar smell of sausage. The dried meat was wearing on me, the monotony eating me from the inside. The only consolation was that I could have been one of those poor tributes who were too cowardly to go into the cornucopia to get the food that I now had, and be stuck living off the land. I was pretty sure I wouldn't survive very long if that was my plan.

The girls were sitting around the fire. Blythe assured me that they were just about to wake me. It was unspoken, but we never ate without a member of the group. If they had begun before waking me, I probably would have taken off into the woods in fear of a mutiny. But I didn't have to worry about that… right?

I suddenly wondered if any of my "teammates" were planning to take me out. It is what I would do. At this point, I figured they needed me to take down Marko, but Sheek would stand a chance if there weren't too many variables thrown in, like an annoying Steffi trying to slash your ankles when you turned your back to her. I knew all too well how that could affect your combative skills.

Blythe was needed to take down Steffi, and if Blythe went down, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Steffi emerge from this arena. In a game where only the winner survives, you can't win if the opposition refuses to die.

That left Cleota. The only value she retained was her love for me, which, quite frankly, was bugging the crap out of me. Even though it was useful in foreseeing a rebellion, it was wearing me very thin. Every time I ventured into the forest for any reason, whether it be to relieve myself or to scavenge for food, she would accompany me and insist on a passionate moment between us.

My thoughts were interrupted suddenly by Cleota standing up. "I am going to look for something else to eat. This meat is just too bland," she announced to us. She looked meaningfully at me for a moment, then turned on her heel and headed for the line of trees thirty yards from our camp.

I turned to the other two, just in time to see Sheek and Blythe roll their eyes at each other. I realized quickly that it was what Cleota had said that unsettled them. I looked quizzically at them, and they shrugged my question off.

"What was that look about?" I asked assertively. They looked at me, then turned to face each other. They seemed to silently be discussing the danger of telling me. Finally, with a movement of Sheek's head, Blythe began to speak.

"Haven't you noticed that Cleota is, well… rather attached to you? Wherever you go, she goes. And whenever she goes anywhere, she looks as though she expects you to go with. You know what I mean?" She looked as though I was about to rip her head off. This observation led me to examine Sheek, and I found that she was clutching the knife in her pocket.

"Yeah… Cleota is kind of… In love with me," I told them reluctantly. Their eyes wide, they gestured for me to continue. "I've kept her around to look out for me, to have someone to warn me if any trouble was happening. But I really don't see the point of her anymore, to tell the truth…" I trailed off and waited for one of them to speak.

"You don't see a point in her…?" asked Sheek. I nodded slowly, and looked at her questioningly. She looked at Blythe and back at me. "Well I don't see a point in her either. Should we… maybe…"

She couldn't finish the sentence.

In response, I painted a grave countenance upon my face and nodded. But in reality, I had been waiting for this moment for too long.

"I'll do it," I told them. "Wait here." And with that, I took off into the forest, headed towards the fruit trees where I knew Cleota would be waiting.

It didn't take long to find her. She was high in a tree, picking the mushy green fruit that grew there. "Honey," I called to her, cringing at the saccharine term I used, luring my prey to her death. She smiled down at me, and with a final lunge, grabbed the last fruit off the branch. Like a cat, she scrambled down to me, and upon reaching me, wrapped her arms around my waist and looked into my eyes.

"Now we're all alone…" she said. She was trying to lead into something else, but I redirected the conversation.

"Cleota, there is something that has to be done," I told her. I thought this would be easy, but it was actually hard. I told myself that now was not the time to develop a conscious.

"Anything," she told me. And she took a step back.

"Someone needs to be killed," I said again.

"Who?" She asked me. "Blythe? Sheek? I'll kill them if you don't want to," she said.

"No, not them," I began to say. But I was cut off from a sound from over head. We both looked up in time to see a silvery parachute falling from the canopy above. It fell straight toward Cleota, and she caught it.

She pulled the silver fabric away from whatever gift her sponsor had sent her, and then looked up at me. She pulled the long silver knife from the parachute, and realization flashed in front of her eyes. The realization was followed by shock, hurt, then anger. She gripped the knife harder, and saw what was about to happen.

She took a deep breath, then charged me.

Luckily, I was ready. I side-stepped at the last second, and she barreled around to face me. I charged this time, and she wasn't quick enough to dodge it. We barreled to the ground, rolling over each other time and time again. Unlike I had hoped, she was able to retain the knife through the whole thing. She stabbed at me, and I was only just able to stop her from stabbing through my heart. Unfortunatley, she scraped my shoulder, and the pain shot through me like fire.

I shoved her off of me, and while she stood up, I used my low position, and shoved her again. This time, she fell face-forward against a tree. She fell to her knees, and was about to collapse when I caught her. With one last breath, I positioned one arm atop her head, and the other beneath her chin.

With all my strength, I pulled the hand on top to the right, and the hand on bottom to the left.

Cleota's dead body hit the ground as the cannon boomed out through the arena.

Losing a lot of blood from my shoulder, I stumbled through the foliage to Sheek and Blythe. When I arrived, they converged on me. Blythe began directing Sheek to boil rags, and in the same tone, began talking to sponsors, knowing that they could hear her. Soon, she had antiseptic and a needle and thread falling from above.

I blacked out then, and my last vision was of Sheek and Blythe with worried looks on their faces.

It didn't make for comfortable sleep.


	16. Change

Chapter 16

When I woke up, the music was blaring in my ears. I looked up to see a picture of Cleota high in the sky. I forgot that she used to wear her hair down. Here in the arena, all of the girls I had been acquainted with had braided their hair simply for something to do.

Sheek noticed that I had awoken. She came over and offered me a sip of water. I drank heavily from the canteen, and then looked up at Cleota one more time before she disappeared from the arena for good.

I was not sure how to feel about killing Cleota. It was one thing to kill Garth or Lex – they actually would have posed a threat to me if it had come to a fair fight. Cleota on the other hand, would have had a small chance of beating me, even if she did have a mace to use. Against my sword, a mace would have been at a disadvantage.

'What is done is done,' I think to myself. And it is done. Cleota's life is done.

"We need to think," says Blythe. "How do we lure Steffi and Marko out of hiding?"

"There isn't a way," says Sheek. "We'll just have to let it happen by chance."

Sounded like a solid plan to me.

We spent the night awake. Nobody needed sleep. Every hour, Blythe applied a few drops of medicine in a bottle that stung, but by the first light of dawn, I had grown new skin over the wound from Cleota's knife. It no longer hurt, but was very stiff.

I decided to rid myself of the aches and pains by sparring. Sheek and I grabbed some sticks from the forest and started to fight. She beat me twice before I regained my normal level of ferocity. After two long fights, I could pin her to the ground, my stick at her throat, in under a minute.

It wasn't until she suggested that we stop that I realized that I was having fun. And it wasn't until I realized I was having fun that I realized that I had forgotten where we were – or rather… where we weren't… The thoughts transported me to a place far away, the small clearing outside the fences of District 1 where we trained with Bristol.

_The sun beat down through the palm trees, but the thick canopy changed the color of the light to a deep green. The smell of the wild was the smell of freedom. The sounds of the wild were the sounds I dreamed of in my bed behind the walls behind the fence._

_ Three feet in front of me stood my best friend – Sheek. In her hand she held a sword, the edges dulled for practical purposes. She smiled at me, then turned away. I looked down in my hand, and there I too found a sword. _

_ Hearing the sound of the sword sent mine flying into the air as well – it had become a knee-jerk reaction. She sound of clanking metal filled the clearing, and it didn't stop until it was interrupted by a different sound._

_ It was the sound of applause. We both turned to look at our mentor – Bristol. He looked pleased with our efforts, but still, there was a grim defeat in his eyes. Sheek and I exchanged a glance before asking him what was wrong._

_ He told us that our efforts had been wasted, that the rebellion was over. We weren't going to be sent into the Capitol after all. He told us that District 13 didn't exist anymore – that it was gone. We didn't understand how a District could simply be_ gone.

_ To explain this to us, Bristol led us from the clearing to the edge of the fence surrounding our district. From there, he turned and pointed to the North. There, on the edge of the horizon, was a giant mushroom cloud. _

This was the day that I learned that you couldn't beat the Capitol. All you could do was make the best of what they gave you. And they had given me these games. And I was going to make the best of this situation by winning, by preserving myself.

My thoughts were halted by the sudden wave of cold I felt. I looked at my arm, and there I saw a thin dusting of white – snow. Back home in District 1, snow fell only occasionally. There it was celebrated. Here, it was bleak. Cold and wet at the same time, it was uncomfortable and anything but ideal for fighting.

We took cover in a tent we found in our dwindling supplies. We had only about three day's worth of food left, but there were enough medical supplies to keep the hospital in our district running for a year.

The snow was thick and heavy. Unlike normal snow, it stuck to the ground from the first flake, even though minutes before, it had been almost eighty degrees Fahrenheit. The snow came down thicker and faster with every flake. Pretty soon, we stopped keeping watch, sure that nobody would travel in this weather.

Sleep didn't come easy. We had to bundle up with everything we could find from the Cornucopia's supplies, and we were still shivering. Finally, we huddled together in the corner of our tent until we all fell asleep.

It was only by chance that we woke up in time. Sheek, who's shoulder I was sleeping on, shifted, and my head fell and hit the ground painfully. I opened my eyes, but I was surprised to find that our tent was In almost complete darkness except for a ring of fabric near the top.

Alarmed, I unzipped the flap and we greeted by a wall of solid ice. Near the top, there were still a few inches of open space revealing a cloudy sky, and I felt a frigid wind blowing in. I quickly woke Sheek and Blythe, and we set to work tunneling out.

It was tough work. If we hadn't had those few inches of open space at the top of the opening, we probably would have been stuck in there. I'm not sure if we would have died, seeing as the Gamemakers didn't have a camera inside. But if they had decided to keep us trapped inside, I'm sure it would have turned into our own form of the hunger games, where hunger really was a key motivator.

But with the combined efforts of Sheek, Blythe, and me, we were able to excavate our way out of the tent, along with all of the supplies… except the tent.

A mere ten minutes after making our escape from the tent, we were greeted by our familiar friend, the sun. The warmth was pleasant, but it reflected off the snow and ice painfully against our eyes.

Subsequently, however, the snow was melting, and the resulting slush was not so hard to look at. But no sooner was the snow slush than the slush was melting too. And it was melting fast.

Too fast.

That's when I noticed that we were quickly being surrounded by water. It was everywhere. And it just kept coming. From all over, it poured. No sooner had we noticed this event than we noticed the building wave on the horizon.

"Grab what you can and climb!" screamed Sheek. We each grabbed the supplies around us, and climbed to the top of the Cornucopia. The initial wave hit us when we were half way up, and another assaulted us a few moments later. They had begun to grow in intensity when we reached the summit, out of reach of the water.

We waited there, with a small amount of food and a few choice items for each of us. I had a sword and two knives. Sheek had three throwing knives, a mace, and a first aid kit. Blythe, who wore her bow and quiver or arrows at all times, had grabbed a water container, a club, and blanket, and our night-vision glasses.

Waiting for the water to recede, Blythe tried to keep us entertained. She said she could see fish in the water, though my eyes couldn't match hers, especially in the depths of the murky water. She pulled a small number of individual threads from the blanket. She then tied them to the ends of three of her arrows.

She instructed us to cut off one of our fingernails which we did. Then she told us to take a small piece of flesh on to the end of the nail and to tie it onto the string. We flung the fishing lines into the water, and in the next four hours, we were rewarded with three fish, two from Blythe and one from me.

Blythe opened the fish up with a knife, and told us that one of the fish was pink fleshed, meaning we could eat it raw. The other two required a fire due to their orange flesh.

Coming from the district where fishing was the main industry, I trusted Blythe's knowledge. What I didn't trust was her character. I was careful to see that she took a bite of her fish before digging into my own.

After dinner, Blythe dove into the water to have a swim. She had briefly mentioned teaching Sheek and me to swim, but by the time she got out of the water, the idea had been discarded. "The currents are strong," she told us. "Only strong swimmers would be able to navigate the waters."

We laid down to sleep. For the second night in a row, we all slept, fearing no threat of death from Steffi and Marko. I slept dreamlessly, and it would have actually been pleasant if I wasn't shaken awake by Sheek about five hours sooner than I had planned.

Still under cover of the blanket, I yelled at her. "What could possibly be so important that I shouldn't be able to sleep as long as I want?!" When she didn't answer, I furiously threw the blanket off me.

When she saw that I was conscious again, she pointed out to the arena. "This might have something to do with it…" she trailed off.

Where only a couple of hours ago had been a giant flooded land, there now was a desert. I looked towards the rain forest… or what had once been the rainforest.

Every tree was dead. Every bush was brown and ready to crumble. There were only two things alive in the entire forest.

And those things were Steffi and Marko.

And they were standing at the edge of the forest, waiting for our move.


	17. Battle Baby Battle

**Author's Note: Hey Guys! I'm so glad some of you like the story. Thank you to all of you who reviewed, and if you didn't, please do. I'd love to hear your feedback and any ideas you have. I haven't even decided how this is going to end yet, so it would really help if some of you told me who you wanted to win. Thanks guys! **

Chapter 17

What scared me most was the way they were standing. They both wore smiles, exuding major confidence. Steffi had two knives and a war axe. Marko was armed to the teeth. He had a sword, a mace, two spears tied in an 'x' to his back, and I thought I could make out the shape of a throwing knife in his pocket.

How did they have so many weapons? The axe, spears, and mace would have been buried deep within the Cornucopia at the start of the games. I didn't remember Marko making much of a splash the first day. Steffi did, but I only remember her leaving with some knives and a spear. So if they didn't get these weapons from the Cornucopia… Did they have more sponsors than we did?

The first emotion I felt was jealousy which was completely stupid. I was about to fight for my life, and I was pissed that a few thousand superficial freaks in the capitol liked someone more than me. But then I realized that without sponsors, and now without our massive supply of food, the playing field may have leveled quite a bit.

"I have an idea," said Sheek. I looked at her, as did Blythe on her other side. "We've been going about fighting them all wrong. We've been looking for the even matches. Blythe, since you're the only one with a prayer of hitting Steffi, we've been making you try. But maybe if we switched…"

"But Blythe won't be able to fend off Marko if it comes to hand to hand," I complained.

"But she can outrun him. She and I are the fastest in the arena, unless Steffi has some bread truck qualities…" she said.

"Bread truck qualities…?" I asked her.

She smiled at me. "Unless Steffi can haul buns," she said, and, in spite of myself and our situation, I burst out laughing.

My mirth was short lived, however, because Steffi and Marko began walking towards us. But they stopped a good fifty yards from the Cornucopia, just out of range of Blythe's bow. Accepting the invitation, knowing this would be our best opportunity, we climbed down, one after another in case they tried to catch us off guard.

When we were on the ground, we divided ourselves up. Blythe knocked an arrow, and waited for Marko to move. Sheek and I walked around to the far side of Steffi, and waited for her to come at us, or for Marko to go towards Blythe.

They didn't seem to like our plan. They switched positions, hoping for Marko to face Sheek and I. We switched with Blythe, but seeing that we weren't going to get the fight we liked, we decided that Sheek and I should go in and attack them simultaneously, and try and give Blythe a clear shot.

Sheek and I exchanged one last look. Then we steadied ourselves, and launched ourselves forward at Steffi and Marko. Seeing us coming, they divided themselves again. Always one step ahead of us, Steffi stepped into my path, and Marko into Sheek's.

It occurred to me why they did this. Sheek was a weaker hand to hand fighter than I was, if only marginally. I was slower than Sheek was, if only marginally. This arrangement gave Steffi and Marko the best chance of survival.

I reached for Steffi and, as expected, I grabbed only air. What I didn't expect was the girlish laughter from Steffi. It pulled me up short – and it made me mad. I ran at her again, and once again, the only thing I assaulted was the ground.

I grabbed my sword, and I expected her to wait for me to attack. Instead, she pulled her war axe out from her belt, and stood ready for my attack. I swung my sword, but she didn't block it. Instead, she dodged, then swung her axe at my exposed shoulder. I fell backwards, but she didn't stop. She advanced forward, and swung again at me.

I parried the blow, but had to roll to the side to get away from the next. I regained my footing, and blindly swung my sword around to deflect a blow I knew was coming. I swung too high, forgetting to calculate Steffi's height. Her axe was about three inches lower than I had foreseen, and it soared beneath my outstretched arm.

If her arm had been only an inch longer, the blade would have soared through my chest. Instead, I found Steffi's arm flying to my left, exposing her left flank and back. This was the first time Steffi had had her back to me the entire games.

In an attempt to take advantage of this, I swung with all my might. But once again, Steffi was too fast. She flew forward, and instead of standing and fighting, she took off towards the dead forest. It was a moment before I saw why.

Twenty yards to my right, I saw Sheek on the ground. She was bleeding heavily, and I saw a knife sticking out of her stomach.

Behind her, Blythe stood, still firing at the retreating forms of Steffi and Marko. I was pleased to see that Marko had been hit twice, once in the calf, once in his lower back. Blythe gave up when they passed the threshold of the trees.

We converged on Sheek at the same time. Blythe took over, being a talented healer. Blythe slowly pulled out the knife, quickly covering up the ragged flesh with a cloth when Sheek's body was rid of the knife.

The next thing I knew, Blythe was looking up at the sky. For a moment, I thought she might be praying or showing some form of religion. It wasn't until the silver parachute hit me on the head that I stupidly realized she was in need of a gift from a sponsor.

Inside of the parachute, there was only a needle in a plastic container, a spool of thread, and a very small bottle of rubbing alcohol. This would have been a cheap gift in the first days, but now it was sure to be extremely expensive.

Blythe began stitching Sheek up, but we began talking about it. "This probably won't do anything," she told me. "The bleeding is internal too, and the knife probably ruptured something vital. We're probably just wasting our time."

"Oh," was all I said. I knew that Blythe wanted to kill Sheek, but I had to think about that one. Obviously, Sheek wasn't going to be much of a match for me later on. If I could hold my own with Marko, and Sheek couldn't, wouldn't she be an easy kill?

'No!' I told myself. Don't think of anyone as an easy kill. Every person in this arena is a talented fighter, and their one goal is to kill you. And your one means of protection is killing them. So if Sheek were gone…

The people in district 1 would be upset that I consented to off her. But they would understand. And if they didn't, I would point the finger at those families that had turned in their neighbors during the rebellion to cast the shadow of doubt away from them. They did what it took to protect themselves.

And so must I if I am to survive these games…

"Should we kill her?" I ask Blythe. She didn't even bother to respond. She simply grabs her bow, an arrow, nocks it, and releases it into Sheek's ear. She gives a single moan, followed by a shudder, and all is quiet.

The brief silence is followed by a cannon. That's when we begin to think that Steffi and Marko will probably come back to investigate. We should probably clear out before they come to investigate.

We collect what is left of our once mountain of supplies. We have only a package of dehydrated sausage and two biscuits. In order to evade our adversaries, we fled into what was once the swap. We now found only pebbles and dead plants.

But as we traveled deeper into the swamp, we came across something else – the dart traps left behind by Willa and Blaire. We disarmed one and collected the poisonous darts from inside. We did this to every trap we came upon. Soon, we had about fifty darts. It was amazing that they had done this, and I don't think I had realized at the time how tough of opponents those two little girls really were.

Along with the darts, we collected the strings and wires that they had used. Our hands were filling up when we came upon the location of our initial bout with the two girls. We collected the nets they had used to tie us up. Now we were up to our teeth in supplies, so we decided to make camp.

The swamp was still as dry as the rest of the arena. There wasn't any mud left, just the cracked remains of the stuff. We search around the camp for a while, and after extending our radius to a hundred yards, we come upon what can only have been the permanent camp of the two little girls. We find two small packs.

They didn't have much, but they had matches and, miraculously, a bottle of water that is still half full. Blythe and I decide not to drink it until we get back to camp.

As we walk in the final rays of sun, we hear the trumpets. We wonder what this means, but our speculations are cut short as the voice of a man we haven't heard since day one greets us.

"Congratulations to the final four tributes of the very first Hunger Games! As the number of tributes has reduced the last few weeks, so have the supplies. Each of you is desperately thirsty and hungry with no immediate means of attaining food and drink. So we are giving you the opportunity to prolong your life in the games.

"You are hereby invited to a feast. There will be food and water, but there will also be opponents. Be at the cornucopia tomorrow at first light. Don't be late. You won't want to miss this."

Blythe and I look at each other. We _are _in desperate need of food, but neither of us wants to risk another fight so soon. On the other hand, we would probably starve. And the one thing worse than getting food would be seeing food in the hands of Marko and Steffi.

So was it worth the risk?


	18. Feast

**Hey Guys! This should be the second to last chapter, if everything goes according to plan. And I wanted to bring something up. I have thought about writing a sequel to this. It will be about the second Hunger Games, and if that works out, maybe the third and so on. Let me know what you think. But I was considering starting the sequel from the POV of whoever I make the winner of these games. Hope you like this chapter, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review, especially if you have followed this story the whole way through. **

Chapter 18

This was not an ideal situation by any means. Blythe and I had hardly any food and no means of sustaining ourselves. Steffi and Marko had become stronger, and if we let them have the food, there was no doubt that they would just climb into their hidey-hole and wait for the gamemakers to find them for us.

"We have to go," Blythe whispered. Her normal voice was still there, but under it, there was an underlying tone. I could tell from the way her eyes were glazed over, not focusing on any tangible thing, just our situation, and the slight raising in pitch.

It was the first time we were truly scared for our lives. The first time we knew that there was a legitimate threat of dying.

We were already a good five hour hike from the cornucopia, so we decided to start our trek and maybe catch a few ZZZs before sunrise. In order to get there faster, we would run for a while, then walk until we caught our breath.

We traveled this way, and in only three hours, we had reached the cornucopia. We decided to take sleeping shifts of one hour and alternate until sunrise. We hid in a copse of dead bushes at the farthest outreaches of what used to be the swamp. The dead leaves were pokey to sleep on, and they were awfully loud. But it was better than sleeping in the open.

We had each slept two shifts when we could see the sun beginning to bloom. The sky was turning the typical pinkish orange, but it wasn't until the actual sun popped over the tops of the trees that a giant hole on the ground opened up, and out came two separate tables.

The first table was laden with food and water. There were bowls overflowing with fruit, whole roast suckling pigs, the grease dripping off in fat golden drops. From here I could see a tray covered with cheeseburger patties, buns, lettuce, tomatoes, onions. Everything you could imagine was there, and yet, there was another table to examine.

The second table was piled high with supplies. Weapons were everywhere: tridents, maces, spears, swords, bows and arrows, awls, knives, and clubs. And yet, there was more. I saw two pairs of see-in-the-dark glasses. I saw vials of poison, and boxes of medicine. I saw spools of wire miles long, and I saw tent packs.

"What do you think?" I ask Blythe.

"I have an idea," she tells me. "How well can you shoot a bow and arrow?"

Quizically, I look at her. "Not very well. Not well enough to shoot someone from more than thirty yards away, and definitely not a moving target."

"Okay, you go to the supplies table, and quickly gather as much as you can. But be absolutely sure to get a spool of wire and another bow and a quiver of arrows. Go as fast as you can. I am going to grab some food, but be back here as soon as you can."

She repeats this all so fast, and immediately she takes off towards the food table. Unable to ask any questions, I do as she says.

I book it to the table with supplies. There is everything there, including a very large backpack to put it in. I grab a lot of things, and finally, I grab the bow, the arrows, and the wire. I place them on top of everything else in the pack, and run back towards the swamp.

I look over my shoulder at the last moment before I enter the now dead swamp. A few steps behind me is Blythe, and on the other side of the clearing are Marko and Steffi. They see us, but they do not pursue us. They calmly walk towards the tables, armed for a fight, but not in favor of one.

Once we are completely concealed by the trees, I ask Blythe what we are doing. "I'll explain while we run. Follow me," she says as she takes off through the brush. We run flat out for a very long time, and I can tell that we are running the perimeter of the clearing, just on the outskirts so as to be undetected by Steffi and Marko.

We run for about five minutes. I can tell by the shape of some of the plants that we have left what was once the swamp and entered what was once the rainforest. Blythe creeps to the fringe of trees, and sees that Steffi and Marko are still picking over the tables.

She turns to me and begins talking very quickly. "Tie a length of wire to an arrow. Make sure the wire is at least fifty feet long. When you have done that, climb this tree. Steffi and Marko will enter the forest between this tree and that tree," she said as she gestured to a tree thirty feet away.

"They have done so every single time they have exited the clearing. Just before they cross the plane created by the tree, shoot your arrow towards the base of my tree, and I will shoot the base of yours just after they cross the plane, trapping them. This will halt Steffi for the smallest second which is all I need to kill her. Go ahead and take a shot at Marko if you can, but once Steffi is out of the way, either of us could kill him."

Despite the speed at which she issues these orders, I understand perfectly. We are going to shock Steffi into holding still. And staying still is her one weakness.

I have just climbed into my tree when I hear them coming. The noise they are creating makes it clear that they are not aware of our presence.

They have just crossed the plane when I release my arrow. The wire flies behind the tail of the streaking projectile. I am absorbed in its motion until the moment it impacts the trunk of the tree. Then I nock a second arrow, and fire.

I watch as my missile flies through the air. It is nowhere near Marko's person. But as I follow my arrow, I look at the scene below me.

Steffi, the impossible target, with an arrow sprouting out of her throat, the blood beginning to pool around her feet.

My feet hit the ground the instant the cannon sounds. I am on Marko before he knows what to do. I pull the knife from my belt, and at that instant, I feel the blade slice through skin as it grazes his chest on the way up. He grunts, but I cut the sound of pain off as I drive the blade into his chest with all my might. It would have been easier to stick it through his ribs, but I was so full of adrenaline, I decided to go _through _his ribs.

I heard the second cannon. I raised my fist in triumph. I had never smiled so wide in my life. I looked up into the tree where Blythe had been…

And my smile fell.

Blythe had her arrow pulled back, her left eye closed as she aimed.

I heard the bowstring release, and raised my hand uselessly against the oncoming arrow.

The point of the arrow pierced the palm of my hand. I screamed, harder than I had ever screamed in my life. It was not just a scream of pain, but a scream because I knew that my life was about to end. That I would never make it home to District 1.

And as I opened wide, the sound escaping my lungs, Blythe released her final arrow into the depths of my throat. And then, blackness.

In my final moments, I heard them – the trumpets. And from all sides, the voice of Claudius Templesmith boomed. "Ladies and Gentlemen! I give you the winner of the First Hunger Games – Blythe Tandrum!

And all was black.


	19. Resolutions And New Beginnings

**Okay so now that we know who the winner is, the story is gonna change POV. And also this is gonna be the last chapter. The other two chapter ideas were too short, so I'm just gonna combine them. Then I'm gonna start the sequel. Let me know if you have any ideas for "The Second Hunger Games" and PLEASE, I am BEGGING you to review if you have made it all the way through this story. Even if it is a "You suck" or "Great work", I would LoVe to hear it!!! Thanks all! I'll have my next story started in no time. **

**Chapter 19**

I had done it. I had won the Hunger Games. No one could stop me. Not Lex, who had muscles on his muscles. Not Sheek, who didn't want to be seen as smart, but I knew that her silence was strategic. And not even Apollo, who thought I didn't know he killed Garth, then Lex. He thought I didn't even know Cleota was in love with him.

I had finished these games with little more than a knife wound to the shoulder, though I was sure I was slightly malnourished and I had lost a _lot _of weight.

I was the youngest of our pack. I was only fourteen when I had been reaped. Tomorrow would have been – will be my fifteenth birthday. I was smaller than the other five, and yet, none of them ever underestimated me. To most in the arena, I was the biggest threat, and their fears, it seems, were not to be overlooked.

I walked with distinction towards the Cornucopia clearing. And as I exited the forest, my ears were filled with the cheering of the people in the capitol. I smiled wide, knowing that every camera within a mile of me was angled straight at me.

The hovercraft picked me up. I was frozen on the ladder as I had been before the games. A lady, different from the one I had seen prior to my ordeal, came and extracted the tracker from my arm. As her skin obscured mine, I realized for the first time just how dirty I was. The filth and grime of the arena and the blood of my victims stained my flesh. And even if it came off with soap and water, I knew that I would always be stained.

Stained forever by death.

And so began the next couple of days. I was drugged into sleeping for amounts of time that I could not keep track of. Every time I awoke, I was prettier. Softer, less of myself, but not in a way that displeased me.

Prior to the games, I had not been portrayed as sexy. Sheek and Cleota had both been flaunted as objects of the men of the capitol's desires. I had been to scrawny, not proportioned right. But I woke up and found that my curves had become curvier, my scrawny chicken legs changed and colored, no longer thin and pale, but perfectly angular and shiny bronze.

I was beautiful.

Then next few days, I was interviewed and shown the recap of the games. I saw little that surprised me. I saw that Apollo had killed Garth when he turned his back on him disrespectfully and how he had killed Lex by injecting him with toxic lighter fluid.

What surprised me most was Steffi and Marko. They had hidden only ten yards away from the serene pool we had come across in the rainforest on the second day. They had seen us when we went to kill Raena and Trevor, but we had been too numerous to engage at the time.

After the interview and viewing of the games, I was taken to a party at the President's house. I ate so much food I felt like bursting. And before I knew it, I was back on the train to District 4.

When they opened the doors, I burst through to the sounds of cheering from my friends and family. It was wonderful to be home. The only people that weren't cheering were Garth's friends and family.

I was alive, and I was home.

**ELEVEN MONTHS LATER, DISTRICT 4 REAPING**

The view from the stage was slightly disorientating. I was higher than almost all of the thousands of people in District 4. And off to my right, thousands of children waited with bated breath, hoping for anyone's name to be called besides their own.

But they needn't have feared. I had already seen to it that no child in Districts 1, 2, or 4 would ever have to fear unwilling entry into the Hunger Games.

I had been in contact with my old mentor, Viktor Tyson, and with the mentors of the District 1 and 2 tributes last year. They had each taken on apprentices, boys and girls, to represent our Districts in the Hunger Games.

That's when our District's escort, Lillianna Laprizz, pulled a name from the reaping ball. The name on it read some sixteen year old girl named Sephia Banes who looked like she was athletic and strong. If the reaping system wasn't fixed already, she looked like she had some prospect. I quickly dismissed her.

She was barely at the stairs when _my _tribute stood up. "I volunteer," she said in a strong voice.

"Come on up," said the mayor. When she reached the stage, red hair flowing down her back, shirt stretched tight over her chest, she was introduced by Lillianna.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the female tribute from District 4 – Ariella Vanders."

**Author's Note: Okay guys, Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed it as so many of you have told me. If you didn't enjoy it, I'm sorry you just wasted five hours of your life reading it to get to this point. If you guys didn't notice, that ending was me leading into the sequel. Which will be told from the POV of Ariella, but as I demonstrated in this story, being the narrator doesn't guarantee survival, so if she dies, I'll just switch who the narrator is. If you have any ideas for the next story, PLEASE let me know. And if you enjoyed the story, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review!!!!!! **** I'll be back with my next story soon, so subscribe to me as an author so you can see when that comes out. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.**

**Emmdog1994**


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